I didnt believe in destany,
by mad-man
Summary: soon to be overhalled. new name will be Destany Lies,
1. Default Chapter

This is the remake of my first digimon fic. And if you didn't know it already this is an original universe fic, using really reworked session four ideas. All characters are original. The first time I did this I had FlameGatomon in here, I thought this was a digimon from one of the games or shows that never came over to the US. Instead it was a fan-made digimon, sorry for causing any undo confusion to any who read the original fic containing FlameGatomon.

Also digimon have names of their own chousing, why? So I don't get them mixed up. Currently they will mostly be English names, perhaps some French, Spanish or German names as well. If you know a site with listings of names (any language is welcome) and their meanings please let me know.

Email me at cockpitdude2002 it is a yahoo account. I would put a link but FFnet has been cutting them out after I upload them.

Standard disclaimer: I don't own digimon - wish I did. I am writing this for fun and peer recognition, not for profit! There I said it and won't again.

-I didn't believe in destiny-

-------- C1) My name is Brent-----

----narration----

This is my story, others were there, but I'll be telling their parts as well. This all started with me, it had to start with me, why? Nobody knows ... it doesn't matter now. I guess I should start at the beginning; these stores always seam to start there.

----Brent----

My name is Brent. That is my name. I'm 17 and I' am the guy every sees but never talks too. That large guy with who always seams in a bad mood. Or the strange guy sitting under a tree with a book. I'm almost six foot six, with shoulders that made everyone want me to play linebacker. My dirty brown hair is always a tangled mess but I keep it from reaching past my forehead. Behind my thick-rimed glasses, my eyes look blue/green, but I'm told they always seam so hard. I usually laugh at that. On that day, such a long time ago, I had been wearing an old pair of jeans and a dark gray t-shirt. And as usual, I had on my heavy boots.

I was at my computer; that old pile of junk wouldn't let me get my email. Normally I would have been outside hiking or something, but the rain was coming down in sheets. Something was messing up my PC more than usual and I was getting mad. Finally, the page started to load, and as I was soon to realize, the odds where really against me. Lightning flashed and my screen blinked. After the lights came back on, I expected that I would need a new computer. I was certainly surprised to see it was still on and had loaded the page. That is until I checked the screen. It wasn't my page, and trying everything I knew it wouldn't close or switch to a different screen.

Most of the page was scrambled or distorted in some way. I could only read some of the first paragraph,

You are one of those chosen,

Destined to save countless worlds.

You are the ????? of ???(too distorted)

You can save these worlds, or doom them all.

A path of ??? and f??? is ahead.

One will ??? you, not by will but by ?????,

He holds the balance, you need to ??? him.

The choice is yours, will you fight or flee.

I didn't think much of it, assuming that it was just another annoying pop-up. The 'no' button was scrambled so much that I could barley see it. All that was left was the 'yes' button; I figured that if it killed my PC I could finally go get a new one. Now I kind of wish I had just pulled the plug, although I don't think that would have mattered.

In a flash of light my room vanished and I was falling through the air. I was spinning wildly and couldn't see much of anything. I finally stopped flipping around, only to see the roof I was about to hit.

----------

I awoke to the sound of moaning; it took a moment to realize it was me. When I finally pulled my eyes open all I could see was a dark brown. I felt around trying to find my glasses, I located them on a stand near the bed or cot I was on. After I put them on, I could clearly see the wooden ceiling. Trying to sit up, I winced as needles of pain danced across my back and chest. I wasn't wearing my shirt; someone had taken it off to bandage me up. I must have cracked a couple of ribs - it sure felt like it. The room I was in was small and except for the cot and stand rather unremarkable, I couldn't see any light fixtures and what little light there was came from around the door. Swinging my feet down from the cot, I yelped in pain as my foot, which must have been badly, sprained hit my boots, which I put on.

I had no idea what had happened, one moment I was at my PC, the next I hit a roof. All I remember after hitting the roof is raised voices and some pounding and being surrounded by colored blurs, then more pain and darkness.

I was getting restless so I checked the drawers of the stand. The top one held my shirt that had some fresh stitches and patches to go with the ones on my jeans. The second drawer was much like any junk drawer I ever saw, full of everything that one doesn't need but might. All I found of interest in it was an old fashioned Zippo, which I didn't hesitate to pocket. The last drawer was full of old bits of cloth and other sewing items; I almost closed it when I saw a glint of something near the back. It was a simple pocketknife that had two blades, one of which was cracked. I pocketed the knife as well.

I waited for a bit, but patience wasn't one of my strengths. So I was up and pacing back and forth. I had tried the door only to find it locked from the other side. Soon, very soon I was tired of pacing. I went to the door and called for anyone to let me out; when I didn't receive an answer, I tried knocking 'loudly' and calling louder. What little patience I had was gone, and my thanks for bandaging me up was fast dwindling.

I was done calling, I was going to knock down the door. Standing as far back as possible, I leapt at the door with all my weight. Unfortunately the door started to swing open just before I hit it. Me and whoever had opened the door went tumbling, my glasses went flying and I landed on my back with whoever sitting on my chest. Before passing out, I saw a blue blur perching on my abdomen.

I woke up feeling much better than I had earlier; this was forgotten when I realized I was tied down to the bed. This stirred up a lot of bad emotions and some thoughts that I didn't like. I started thrashing around and shouting to be untied. Almost right away a door opened and closed. I didn't hear any footsteps but a voice spoke next to my ear, "Calm down, you won't be hurt. You're tied down because you tackled the sheriff's son. Here are your glasses."

I stopped struggling; I think I may have even stopped breathing. Standing on the cot next to me was a Gatomon, a digimon from the anime show I used to watch. It looked like a cartoon cat with a big ears and short white fur with purple stripes and longer purple hair on her ears and tail tips. She wore tiger striped gloves and a golden ring on her tail just like the one from the show but her big eyes where a soft amethyst.

I knew I was staring but I was looking at a character right out of the TV. Then the thought hit me, I was in the digital world but why me? Apparently the Gatomon had had enough of my staring, "Stop looking at me like that. For the first human this village has seen, you are making a bad impression."

Normally, I would try to act polite, but this was way past normal. "My computer went nuts, I fall through a roof, and wake up to find myself locked in a room. Get knocked out trying to get out and now I'm tied to a bed and talking to an anime cat that could kill a tank! And after all that I should be worried about making a bad impression." I couldn't help but laugh at the expression on her face. When I stopped laughing, I went back to trying to get lose.

The Gatomon hoped down from the bed and pulled a chair over. She sat down and just looked at me for a while before saying, "Maybe you should be. You did put a hole in the mayor's house, and then you tackled sheriff Vincent's son. You haven't even thanked me for bandaging your wounds."

I didn't care about any of that, I asked something that just occurred to me. "So what is this world like? Is it like any of the shows on TV?" I figured I might as well get some info while I could.

She seamed surprised, "what shows are you talking about? The realty shows or some soap operas, I bet it was 'All My Digieggs.' My name is Fay, if you where wondering. What's yours, or should I call you 'human'?"

Now I was surprised, "My name's Brent. And since when did digimon have names?"

She shrugged, "why wouldn't we. All digimon take names when they digivolve to champion." I kept trying to get loose as she was talking. And she got frustrated, "So are humans really like all the myths and legends, from what I'm seeing they are not so different from some digimon."

I had no idea what she was talking about, "what myths? People aren't all alike, some are nice and some are idiots."

She hopped down from her chair and walked over to the door laughing a sad kind of laugh. She looked back before opening it, "I guess the legends never heard of you. Legends are never true." She said that last part like maybe they should have been.

Before she could go out the door I asked, "any idea why am I here?"

She stepped out the door and looked back, "Maybe it's just fate."

I shouted at the closing door, "I don't believe in fate!"

I was tired of struggling against the ropes, but I was just as determined to get loose. Then I realized what an idiot I was - I had the pocketknife I'd found earlier. Stretching around I could barely touch my pocket, but with a good bit of squirming I finally got it out and flipped it open. The ropes were pretty thick and took a while to cut through.

I was almost free; all that was left was the rope around my ankles. I was anxious and had the feeling that someone would be coming soon. That is probably why my hand slipped, I cut through the last bit of rope and into my ankle. I screamed.

I ripped off a peace of the bed sheet and tied it around my ankle. I looked to the open window but I wouldn't be able to run with my ankle. Not to mention it was still daylight out and anyone could see me. Then there were footsteps and voices coming closer to the door. I didn't have any time.

----Fay-----

She was writing to a fellow doctor about humans. She had gathered a lot of notes by watching Brent. She couldn't help but wonder about him - he seamed to heal quicker than what humans were thought to. And he seamed more agitated about being trapped than anyone she could think of; even bird digimon didn't get so aggravated in caves.

The second knock on the door pulled her from her thoughts. She put down her pen and went to open it, She knew who it was even before opening it. It was a short Exx-Vemon, "Hello, Fay."

"Hello, Sheriff Vincent." She and the sheriff had always been on good terms. That is until a few months ago when he started to get angry about silly little things.

"I came to talk about the human. Everyone thinks it's time we make him leave town." He had been especially mad about Brent. Even to the point of forcing her to tie him down.

"His name is Brent. And don't you mean 'you' want him gone?" She wanted Brent to stay for a while so she could study a human and maybe get rid of some of the rumors that have always been around. It was strange to her that the digital world had so many old rumors about humans but the only contact it had was television shows that are much newer, and defiantly faked using computers and actors.

"The human is going to leave today. He is too much of a distraction to everyone," he was right about that. Everyone in town was talking about Brent.

"Brent will leave when I'm sure he is better," she waved Vincent out the door and followed him out. "Besides," she went on, "I don't think he will until he knows why he is here."

Vincent talked about some normal daily things while the two of them walked toward the town hall and started towards the room Brent was in. A scream echoed down the hall from his room, they both started running. The sheriff got to the room first and threw the door open, nearly taking it of the hinges. She ducked under his arm to see the room empty. The sheriff went to the open window and squeezed out shouting for any who may have seen Brent leave.

Fay walked to the bed and saw the bit of blood and the cut ropes. She shook her head and walked to the window to watch the search. She heard some footfalls behind her but thought it was someone coming to see what had happened. She froze when a sharp edge was pressed to her neck. "Don't shout Fay, it's just me," the blade was removed and she turned to see Brent put away a pocketknife.

-----Brent-----

The footsteps where almost right outside the door. I pulled on my boots and dived under the bed. I pushed myself against the back wall as the door slammed open. I could see a pair of clawed blue feet and most of Fay's lower body. The feet went to the window and out it, shouts started echoing around outside. Fay walked to the bed and sighed before she went to the window.

I slid out from under the bed and started for the door. I stopped and looked at Fay, and I decided to do something very stupid. I flipped open the pocket knife and pressed it to her neck, "Don't shout Fay, it's just me." I knew that I could have been seriously hurt, but she didn't strike me as a fighter. I put away the knife as she turned around.

She was shocked, for a moment, then she got mad, "What are you doing?" she turned and shut the window and shutters before I could make up an excuse. She turned back to and she looked like she really wanted to cut me with her claws, "You act like you don't care what happens to you. Or anyone else."

I shrugged before sitting on the chair she had earlier, "I don't. Why waste time planning something that won't happen the way you planed it. Most the time no one is in control of anything. So I go with what happens."

She wasn't expecting that. I checked my makeshift bandage wile she thought. She told me latter what she was thinking, 'He acts so recklessly, and at the same time he shows his intelligence. He shifts from one way of acting to another with such ease. Dose he even notice, or has he always been like this.' She shook herself from her thoughts and said, "Let's hide you in another room."

I shook my head, "No. I need to get out of town. Is there any place I could hide without being found? Some where no one ever goes."

She walked over and opened the shutters a bit to peak out of the window, "The only place I can think of would be the old tunnels. You could hide in one of the older caverns. No one goes down there unless there is an attack. But that hasn't happened in a long time." She went over the door and walked out calmly. After looking around she waved me after her.

As we went down the halls I wondered what the tunnels were for. I asked her after she checked around a corner. She said, "Back when the town only had a few champions the tunnels where dug. They were built like a fortress, so the whole town could hide safely during the frequent attacks." I asked her about the attacks she kept mentioning. She pushed me into a corner as a pair of Biomon walked out of a doorway. They went back the other direction not even noticing Fay, let alone me.

"the attacks are mostly wild digimon, everyone calls them Wild Ones. Wild Ones are digimon who refused to live peacefully or who couldn't for some reason. You'll learn about all that later," she opened a door at the end of the hall. She swung the door open, pinning me behind it. A Gargomon and a Piximon went up the hall arguing about something.

I watched them turn around a corner when a hand griped my shoulder. Another hand closed over my mouth as I was lifted and cared into the room. I was pulling at the hands and trying to breathe as I was dropped into a chair. "ALEX! Did you have to do that?" Fay was standing on the conference like table.

Alex stepped around my chair, smacking my shoulder with his wings. He was an Angemon. A tall human like digimon with many angelic quality. Long golden blond hair. long softly muscled body that hid its strength behind silken garments. An angular chin and sharp mouth, eyes hidden behind a strange helmet. He was just like the Angemon from the show except his wings six wing where longer and he wore silver instead of blue.

He picked up his staff from the chair it was leaning against and went over to Fay and glared at her. At least I think he was glaring, it's hard to tell with that helmet. They started talking to each other in hushed voices.

"He would have escaped anyway. This way I can keep an eye on him." The conversation was becoming heated. It was interesting to know that she was watching me for some reason. This room had a stone floor while all the others had dirt or wood floors. It was a conference room; it had lots of chairs and the long table in the center.

"He shouldn't go there. I don't know him, he might cause problems," Alex defiantly didn't like me. But why? Their conversation looked like it might become violent. He kept waving to a banner on the wall. I hadn't noticed the banner before; it was interesting.

I stood and went around the table to it - the banner went from ceiling to floor. The center of the banner was blue green ball that represented this world. Around it was a star of golden lines. Swirls of colors was at each of the five points, in the center of each was a crest. The top crest was the crest of courage on a circle of red and silver. Going clockwise, the next was the crest of knowledge on yellow and light blue. Then came hope on purple and dark blue. Reliability was on brown and green; it had a line of black around it. The last one I had never seen before, it was a hand with a stylized eye in its palm; it was over black and white.

I was studying the area around the star - it was just a blurred mass of red, black and swirling gray, when Fay finally convinced Alex. I looked back at them, Fay was smiling and Alex was rubbing the palm of his hand, he defiantly didn't look happy. They both just stood there for a while so I asked, "Where is the entrance to the tunnels?"

Alex came around the table and pushed me away from the banner. He pulled the banner aside and opened the door that was behind it. He folded his wings and entered; in a moment his staff started glowing. Fay, looked very excited about entering the tunnels for some reason as she went in after him. I entered the tunnel and let the banner fall back, but left the door open.

Most of the tunnels were empty and narrow. Some of them branched off and a few lead deeper into the ground. We crossed a few caverns full of crates and sacks of grain and other foodstuffs. We had been walking for several hours and the tunnels started to look more natural and were full of old furniture and antiques.

Alex had been leading us through hidden passages and past secret doors. I was getting hungry when he and Fay stopped before a carved archway. He looked to me and then to Fay; he thrust his staff at me, "Swear by what you hold true. Swear that you will never tell about what lays ahead. Swear to hold its secrets for eternity."

I was kind of expecting him to say something like this or to make me do something strange but I wasn't expecting the emotion his voice held. I looked at where his eyes would be, "I swear by what I do. My actions will hold my oath."

He shook his head, "You can't swear by your actions. You must swear by some great power." His staff shrunk as he spoke and he tucked it into his belt. His hand kept shaking as he spoke.

I squared my feet and stared right back, "There isn't a power in this world or my own that I hold true. I won't swear by anything other than myself."

His frown got worse but Fay interrupted, "Just take his word, you won't get anything better." She seamed really eager to go, "Let's go already."

Alex glared at me for another moment before he turned and ducked under the arch. Fay went in and I was close behind her. The arch lead to a small stone walled chamber. The walls looked like they had been grown instead of cut or built. The most interesting thing was the far wall, made seemingly of solid gold. Alex walked toward it, as he came closer a circular depression appeared.

In the center of the depression was the strange eye-in-palm crest I saw earlier. Alex placed his large hand over the crest. Suddenly, there was a shink of metal. He pulled his hand away reveling the crest covered in blood. The blood was drawn into the crest as Fay wrapped a bandage around the eye shaped cut on his hand. I looked at his hand, there where several old scars like this cut.

"What is in there?" They both ignored me. The room shook and the gold wall began to sink into the floor. "What is going on here?" They still ignored me. Finally the wall was open and they started in.

Inside was a giant temple-like room. The entire room was light with a mix of pure white and black light. The walls where covered with a large mural. It showed a great battle between hundreds of armored figures and shadowed creatures. The domed ceiling held the orbs that emitted the strange flickering light and another mural. This mural showed five distinct figures surrounding a ball of writhing black gray and red. Each of the figures was surrounded by a golden aura.

We had all stopped just inside the door. Alex broke the silence, "You mustn't touch the statue." I was so interested in the mural that I had over looked the statue that stood in the center of the room. Alex stayed by the door as me and Fay walked toward the statue. "If you do touch it you will simply and silently diaper.", Alex's voce was strong and steady but something about how he spoke made me think he was afraid.

It was cut from a plain slab of granite. The body was tall and strong covered in armor. Under the shifting light, it looked as though it breathed. The entire statue was cut in such detail that I was amazed to see the face. The face was nothing but a blank circle left undone. A pair of gauntlets rested in the outstretched arms. They where made of beautiful crystal bound together with twisted bands of black iron. The fingers ended in long hooked claws. On each of the palms was a brass inlay of an eye.

Fay and I came to a stop in front of the statue. She looked down and read the plaque that was at the foot of it. It read:

I am the source of light

I am the void of darkness

The Deliverer of Fate

I will oppose the shadows,

With all of my might

Powers of creation,

Powers of destruction,

Lend me your might, help me.

Help me cleanse the corrupt.

My eyes kept going back to the blank face, but it wasn't really blank. It was worn smooth, like time had only touched the statues face. "Stay away from there!" Fay and I looked back to the door.

Alex was grappling with a short stout Exx-Vemon. Fay asked aloud, "Vincent?" this must have been the sheriff she mentioned earlier. He ripped Alex's staff from his hands and brought it down on top off Alex's helmet. Alex fell to the floor in a heap, a large crack almost splitting his helmet.

Fay ran towards them to help Alex but got kicked like a ball. She bounced off the wall and landed near the door. She tried to stand but fell back to the floor. I can't remember much of what happened after that. Fay told me it later, I don't want to believe it but I have no chose.

----Fay-----

As Fay lay on the ground in pain she couldn't help but wonder how Vincent became so strong. He was made sheriff because he was friendly not because he held any great power. He was always beaten in the holiday games; even his son, a rookie, beat him in wrestling.

She rolled onto her side, groaning in pain. Alex was seriously hurt and Vincent was walking forward, he stopped under the edge of the dome. He started talking or rather growling, "You won't serve the sprit knights. I won't let you oppose the shadow kings." With a roar he drew his arms across his chest and shouted, "XV-Laser!" His arms snapped open as the strangely dark blast flew toward Brent and the statue. Brent fell to the ground, buffeted by the power of the blast as it passed over his head and struck the statue.

The statue shattered, scattering stone across the floor and leaving a light dust hanging in the air where it was. The dust was forced away by an invisible burst of power revealing the gauntlets. They floated with a glow of white and black, as they floated their fingers flexed into fists.

With a crack like thunder they zoomed toward Vincent. He smashed one away as the other drove into his ribs. As they came back around, he grabbed one and tossed it at the other, both of them flipped toward Brent. He raised his arms to catch them, both Vincent and Fay screamed, "NOOO!" Fay shouted because Alex had told her that anyone who ever touched the gauntlets had died, or worse.

Before Brent could grab them they turned in midair and griped his hands. Time froze as he let out a heart stopping scream and the gauntlets shattered. The gauntlets became bands of digicode and wrapped around his hands and wrists. I didn't realize he was still screaming until he stopped, he dropped to his hands and knees panting for air. He stayed there as his skin pulsed with back and white light, a light stronger than that which lit the room.

Vincent took a step back, shaking, "No... humans where only suppose to serve them not... not become them..." his voice shook as he looked at Brent.

"NO, you corrupted form. The Sprit Knights are not digimon served by humans but rather humans served by digimon. Your masters never understood that." Alex was standing. Through the crack in his helmet, one of his eyes burned with such a passion that Fay would never forget, couldn't forget. He took a step forward leaning heavily on his staff.

Alex was about to say more when Brent stood, his gauntleted hands rolled into tight fists. He raised his head; everyone stumbled back at the sight of his face. It was his face but at the same time it was harder, like it was the face meant to be carved on the statue and his eyes glowed with the power he now held. His voice rang in our minds as well as our ears like the trapped power of the forgotten gods, "Five hundred years and the corrupt kings still rule. I have waited trapped outside of this world waiting for another chance. I am the bearer of the crest of Fate, the Knight of Life and of Death. I will free this world, starting with you!"

He exploded into motion crossing the few feet between him and Vincent, delivering a maelstrom of punches before Vincent could move. Vincent tried to move backwards but was grabbed by his throat, the claws of the gauntlets digging into his neck. Vincent was lifted from his feet and thrown upward. "Fate's Cross!" Brent slashed the air with his hands held palm out. An 'X' was formed one beam black and the other almost painfully white. They hit Vincent and forced him upward, crushing him against and into the domed ceiling.

For a moment it looked as if he was still able to fight ,but then his digicode appeared and his body turned black. His digicode was covered with round spots of red. Fay looked back toward Brent as he spoke again, "Darkness will be the end of the corruption..." he raised his right hand and black gas sprayed from the eye in the palm, eating away at the red spots in Vincent's code and leaving gaping holes. "...As light restores the true soul." He raised his left hand and a ray, a blinding white ray leapt forth and wrote new code over the holes in Vincent's digicode. Vincent's code drew back into him and his color returned and he fell to the floor, landing with a dull thump.

Alex took a step toward Brent but before he could take a second Brent collapsed. Alex rushed to him and kneeled beside him as Brent started moaning in pain. Alex looked frantic and after a moment he said in disbelief, "He doesn't have a crest?" His head snapped around as Fay stood up, "Fay something's wrong." Before ether of them could do anything the chamber shook.

Fay hobbled over to Brent as Alex tried to wake Vincent. she was dragging Brent toward the door when a big blue hand picked them up, Vincent was up and helping them now. She had no time to react to his sudden change as all of them ran from the chamber and Fay lost consciousness on the way back to town hall.

----Narration----

Yes, that's how this started. So many things could have been better if only they started a little different.

---------

this is a remake of the first chapter in my first digimon fiction. I haven't wrote anymore chapters at this time as I am waiting for inspiration regarding the other Guardians. Suggestions are welcome. All I have is Brent(done with initial concept) and Guardians 2 being a girl, 3 a boy, 4 girl or boy. I would like to break the long running theme of male digidestend outnumbering female digidestend. I only need help with character development and character appearances, their 'SpirtKnight' forms where completed long before I planed to right this story. I'm only asking for help because of my long standing lack of ideas for these character.

I am without Meruml's assistance in proofreading while he is off at collage. So please note any errors in spelling or grammar (or anything that doesn't appear correct or needs improvement) and tell me in your review. Or email me with your finds.


	2. C2

I have far to many stories right now but I like this one. Even though I haven't worked on it for a good while.

You might be asking where the other kids are. I don't know where until they enter the story and I write them. Also this chapter will deal with some back history of this digital world.

Standard disclaimer: I don't own digimon - wish I did. I am writing this for fun and peer recognition, not for profit! There I said it.

-I didn't believe in destiny-

-------- C2) Lessons --------

----narration----

I have trouble remembering things from back then. I hated it all and didn't believe most of what I saw. Most of what is wrote here is from what others remember, most of them are long gone from here…

----Brent----

Brent found himself standing; he didn't know where he was or how he got there. All around him was a gray fog full of shifting shadows. Growls and inhuman howls echoed across the hard barren ground.

Brent stood there shaking his head as he tried to remember what happened. The last thing he could recall was reading the plaque on the statue. The statue that wore the same gauntlets he now wore. His eyes roamed over them seeing the clear crystal and the blanked iron.

Turning his hands over he saw the eyes of the gauntlets. He stumbled back and fell on his behind from shear shock. The eyes where no longer brass but living flesh and he could see his face as he stared at his hands. The eyes blinked once and returned to being a brass imprint.

Brent tried to pull the gauntlets from his hands but found them stuck as though they where his hands. He pulled as hard as he could, tears coming from his eyes as blood began to flow from under the gauntlets. His hands wouldn't come free.

The fogs begin to come closer as Brent pulled harder. Blood and tears began to pool under him, seaming to draw the dark shadows. With a tormented roar a great shape leapt from the fog. It swatted Brent away and bent down to lap at the spit blood like it was water.

Brent pulled himself up and stared at the monster that was drinking his blood. It was larger than most cars and covered in striped fir. All four of its legs ended in large paws with rending claws. A long tail lashed back and forth and a long main guarded its neck. Large teeth stained red as it drank, teeth dwarfed by two large tusk-like fangs. The eyes glowed a red filled with nothing but hate, rage and hunger.

Brent was frightened of this creature before him. It looked like SaberLeomon but it wasn't. It was as if someone had given a shadow the form and life of SaberLeomon. The shadow creature looked real in every way but one, it was nothing but a shade. It had no color but for its red eyes.

Brent tried not to breath loud as the creature razed it head and looked at the blood still dripping from Brent's arms. It begins to circle around him, a low growl rumbling in its chest. Brent turned with it, scooting around on his behind so he wouldn't lose sight of this shadowy creature.

The giant shadow cat crouched low, its powerful legs curling for a leap. Brent could only raze is gauntleted hands in an almost pathetic appearance of defense. As he braced himself for the attack and his eminent demise he could only think one thing, 'I hate my luck.'

Another roar broke the eerie silence that that descended around the area. A second shadowy creature came charging from the fog. This one looking like a great shadowed dinosaur, a Darktyrannomon shadow beast. It slammed into the side of the catlike shadow, knocking it to the ground. Brent didn't see anything else because the moment the creature's eyes left him he scrambled to his feet and ran.

Brent admitted to himself that he had been putting on a bit of a tough act around Fay. He knew he could out fight anyone he knew, even five against himself. Problem was that he didn't know anybody who could smash down walls if they sneezed, or crush a car if they tripped. His mind kept coming back to wondering why the heck he was here.

He was getting tired and his arms wouldn't stop bleeding under the cursed gauntlets. His feet caught a stone and he tripped landing face first, the iron hard ground bruising his cheek. He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the gray covered sky, and let his eyes close. Exhaustion and blood loss sending him into a dark slumber…

----Fay----

Fay awoke in her bed. She stared at the ceiling and thought to herself, 'that was some dream. First a human drops from the sky then he gets the gauntlets of Fate. Maybe I should tell this to Alex.' She began to sit up only to wince and lay back again. She tossed off the covers and looked down at bandages covering her torso. 'Dang why couldn't it be a dream.'

Fay sat up slower this time and checked herself over. She knew by the pain and from her practice of healer that her had two broken ribs and a bruised lung. She climbed out of bed and began limping across the floor to the door. She paused as she reached for the door, noticing that her gloves where gone. She blushed before turning back and getting them from the stand beside her bed.

She was just leaving the door of her house when Vincent came around the corner. Fay was more than a little upset with him; after all it was his foot that broke her ribs. He saw her and dashed toward her. Fay decided she could deal with a little more pain. When Vincent got within a foot of her she leapt up and back-flipped in the air. Her tail whipped out with its golden ring and caught him under the chin. He stumbled back, stomped on his own tail and then fell back landing on his wings.

Fay landed and put her paw to her side where pain thumped in a dull beat. She felt her ribs, making sure that her broken ribs hadn't shifted, before giving Vincent her worst glare as he got up. His tail was swelling and his wings where bent at a painful angle. She looked him over once, seeing his wings move and how he winced away from her glare, she was sure he would be fine latter. If he told her what was happing.

Vincent rubbed his tail and tried to avoid her eyes, "hi Fay. How are you doing?"

She glared at him a moment longer, "ill be fine as long as you tell me why you gave me the boot like that. In fact I wouldn't mind knowing what was going on with every thing."

He let go of his tail and looked at the ground, he looked embarrassed, "I don't know. Alex explained it to me but it didn't make any sense. I'm sorry for hurting you Fay." Fay smiled before she remembered that Alex and Brent where hurt. She started running toward the large building that was town hall. Vincent's heavy steps following right behind her.

She ran down the main hall checking in doors for Alex and Brent. Vincent grabbed her and held her while he went down the hall and knocked on the door where Brent was before. Fay scratched Vincent's finger, making him put her down, and pushed the door open and rushed in.

She saw Brent lying in bed bandages covering his arms from fingertips to elbows. She went toward him ready to check his condition. "Don't bother Fay, you cant do anything", Alex was sitting in a chair beside the window. His staff was cracked and sat by what was left of his helmet on the floor by his feet. His head had several layers of wrappings around it and his eyes where slightly crossed.

Fay stopped and looked between Brent and Alex trying to decide who was hurt worse. She decided to help Alex, simply because he wasn't often wrong about much. She began to check him over despite his protests. Soon she was convinced he would be fine in a day or so. She sat down in one of the chairs that Vincent had gotten, Vincent sitting in another.

They all just sat there for a moment before Fay asked, "so Alex, would you mind telling us what is happening?" Alex looked over at Brent and then at Fay and Vincent.

He shook his lone hair back from his eyes, "you both know about the holy kings. About how they once ruled with peace and happiness. Something drew them into madness and they began to care only for themselves."

Alex reached down and took up his helmet, running his hands over the crack and making Vincent squirm because he cased it. "The kings began their path to evil with small things. Higher taxes, stiffer laws, but when they began ordering tributes built to themselves digimon became upset. The digimon began forming militias and small armies. The kings saw this and sent the royal army after the, as they called them, ungrateful peasants. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The royal army came from another world ages ago. Nobody understood where or why but they served the kings loyally."

Alex pulled his helmet on so that his right eye shone through the crack, "The army was not made of digimon but small frail creatures that could barley lift their own weight, humans. Many of these humans knew magic and could shape steel and iron into marvels, incredible weapons and armor. They made sets of armor for every human, man and woman, old and young."

Alex looked at his hand and began tracing the scars from the guardian door, "the weapons and armor helped but the humans where still week against most digimon above champion. To help this digimon craftsmen and mages began to help enchant the armors and weapons. It took decades of work enchanting them all. Some got increased strength, others better speed or defenses. Many where giving small touches of the elements so they could fight digimon who where immune to cold steel."

Alex stopped for a long time, gathering his thoughts and the rest of the story, "there where a dozen magic users with the humans. Mostly they where ignored because their magic was nothing compared to even rookies. But as they stayed in the digital world they grew stronger and more powerful. Soon they learned how to shape digicode, something only the most powerful digimon where able to do. However, what they did with it was something no diriment could ever recreate. They bound the full power of the elements into highly incanted armors. Every suit of armor was given two elements and the strength and speed of ultimate level digimon."

Alex looked up at Fay seeming to ignore Vincent, "there was something else done to the armor, something that wasn't intended. Everyone who wore the armor left a part of there sprit behind in it. The sprits within the suit melted together, giving the suits life. That wasn't all the sprits did. When the person who once wore the suit dies their sprit is drawn into the suit taking their memories with it. After a few centuries the armors became the leaders of men, not the men who wore the armors but the armors themselves. These suits where called the Sprit Knights"

Alex's face turned sour, "soon after the armors gained life digimon began joining the army. But men never let them fight or even train for battle. The digimon became servants for men. Many swore themselves and their descendants to serve the sprit knights, my ancestors where one of those." Alex's face returned to its usual stoic state, "With the royal army fighting with these new powers soon the entire digital world was under the rule of the holy kings. Few really cared who ruled over them but some thought it was good to be protected by kind rulers."

Fay was twisting her tail ring around her tail as she listened. She had heard parts of this before, but never from someone who knew the entire story. She looked up at Alex as he was lost to his thoughts, "what lead to the kings turning evil?" she didn't want to interrupt Alex but she wanted him to continue.

Alex looked up at Fay like he had forgotten she was there, "I don't know. No one knows why or how the Kings turned evil. However it started the kings began to spout unfair laws and demanding tributes from even the lowliest family. The royal army did as they where told because they had been raised for generations to obey. The digimon began rebelling, refusing to pay taxes or tearing down statues. The royal army went out as commanded, crushing all who defied them and burning entire towns to the ground."

Alex started rubbing the scars on his hand again, "the Sprit Knights became more withdrawn as the kings orders became more gruesome. Soon the sprit knights refused to give any more orders to the royal army if it was something they believed wrong. But the kings had prepared for this; they commanded the wearers of the suits to give them over to different men. Men who listened only to the kings' orders and acted without question or regret. The kings knew the armors where powerful but they also knew that they couldn't do anything themselves. The armors needed to be worn or they were nothing move than a suit of armor. And the men who did were them could do whatever they wished with the powers of the armor, despite what the sprits within the armors wanted."

Anger welled up within Alex, "that was how the kings kept the sprit knights contained. They put them on brain washed humans who did whatever the kings said and only what the kings said. This is what turned the humans against the kings. The sprit knights always chose their bearers. The humans turned to rebel but it was to late the welders had been slain by poison and the new wearers where already controlling the sprit knights."

Alex's voice had been bare of emotions though much of the story but now his voice rose, "the kings knew this might happen so they had been slowly corrupting all the digimon who served the humans. The digimons powers where increased and they fought with a determination surprising the humans. War between the humans, the rebel digimon and the corrupt digimon fought on for over two centuries. The kings had won. They fought the rebels back into submission and trapped the remains of the humans under a spell of control. Villages like this one are what became of the rebel digimon. Generation after generation the humans became little more than guard dogs. And the sprit knights where trapped within themselves by mindless wielders."

Vincent wasn't overly bright at most times, "if they are trapped how did Brent get one?"

Fay came forward with another question before Alex could answer the first, "and why did Vincent attack us?" Vincent hung his head with remorse.

Alex nodded at the questions, "Vincent attacked because he was corrupted in the same way the digimon from the past once were. He had no control of what he did. Chances are he was corrupted for a long time but only recently did he begin to show the signs. How Brent came to posses a part of the spirit armor is another story in itself. As time passed the armors began to gather power because of the sprits they where absorbing. But at the same time they were becoming unstable from those same sprits. They once absorbed only the sprits of the good, but now they where forced to take sprits of evil. It was a matter of balance and the balance began to tip for evil. As they grew unstable they had to be used less because a simple act could go horribly wrong. Three of the armors where locked away so that they could balance themselves. The forth armor was never entirely good and now it became an evil sprit. The fifth armor, The Deliverer of Fate, was different from all the others." Alex stopped and looked over at Brent.

After a long silence he stood and went over to Brent. He kneeled beside the bed and began to unwrap the bandages from Brent arms. Underneath was the gauntlets, they glowed and pulsed with every breath Brent took. Alex rested his hand over one of the gauntlets, "the other sprits all had combining elements, elements that made the other stronger. The Deliverer of Fate is different because it uses opposing elements. Light grows stronger as it fights darkness, and darkness grows deeper because of light, one growing and feeding of the other. One couldn't become stronger than the other as both grew together. It is this balance that made it different, because of this it could never be good or evil."

Alex stayed by the bed holding Brent's hand within the gauntlets, "Fate grew stronger and stronger without becoming unstable. Soon the armor was strong enough to move and fight on its own. It slew hundreds of humans and digimon trying to get to the kings. It almost made it when it was confronted by the now evil forth sprit armor. The battle raged weeks on end but Fate fell at last. Fate realized he could never match the strength of another armor with a host. The kings scatted the peaces of Fate, weakening them until they couldn't draw on the strength of the other. And as if to add insult they bound the peaces to statues that only corrupt servants could touch without vanishing from this world."

Alex shuddered, "that is a world of fog and darkness. To be there from touching a statue is to become a shadow of what you once where." he looked at Brent's face, "I'm afraid that is where he is. I don't know if he can come back from there on his own."

---Brent---

Brent found himself inside a small crevice in the side of a hill. He looked around seeing only fog and gray landscapes. He curled deeper into the crevice as a lumbering shadow passed. He wanted nothing more than to leave this place.

He may have had no life back home but at least he didn't have to worry about dieing. His gauntlets had started to glow softly; he looked at them and felt himself calming. He brushed the drying blood from them and stared at the crystal as it sparkled and the iron glowing softly.

He traced the curve and flow of the mystical gauntlets with his eyes. The sight calmed him for some reason. His eyes began to travel back to wards his palms and he couldn't stop them. He began to panic but he couldn't look away as he looked eyes with the mismatched eyes in his palms.

One eye was sharp and dark while the other was dreamy and bright. Roamed over him, studying him, judging him. They blinked but didn't return to a brass design rather they lashed out with beams of light and dark, spearing his mind and stealing his secrets. Brent slipped away from his body, carried by those beams of energy…

---Narration---

Yes the shadow land was harsh but I would have rather stayed there. Life was going to become worse than shadowed eternity.

------

There you go, chapter 2. I wager this will get rewrote at least once before chapter 3.


	3. C3

I don't own digimon. If I did it would still be on.

Oh and I like my POVs. Many people like it that way and so do I, so they stay. However I see where I messed up the perspectives. Ill keep it from happing again, and I mean to go back and fix the ones before this.

* * *

I didn't believe in destiny,

C3) Fighting

* * *

narration

At the time I kept trying to get away from everything that was happing to me. I'm still not sure when I stopped, it may have been just after I got my crest…

* * *

Fay> 

Fay awoke in her bed as the sun was just peeking in her window. She sat up and starched her arms over her head. Her ribs where still a little tender but they would be better soon. After her morning routine and a breakfast of eggs she began tidying up her little house.

It was a small house, only three rooms and a kitchen and bath, but she was a small digimon and preferred a singles life. The three rooms where her bedroom, living room and office, each a little larger than the last. She liked working her clinic out of her home; it was so much nicer than the big stone hospital two towns down the road.

She pushed open her front door and looked out at the village. It was very small, much to small to be a town, but it grew some of the best fruit on this side of the world. And because of the tropical climate they could grow fruit almost all year round. There were always a few merchants driving wagons or trucks that showed up every week with products from other towns. In fact once a year a big convoy came down from Fire-Glade in the north and bought out most of the fruit grown that season, nobody minded because they paid the best and brought so much else for sale that they could never make down here in the country. Not to mention that they came just before a fresh season of growth the fruit sold was quickly replaced.

So many travelers passed through the village that there where nine large hotels and bed-an-breakfasts, digimon from out of town usually outnumbered those that lived there. Currently there were only a handful of merchants in town and they planed on moving on soon. Most of the village spent their days out tending the large orchards that surrounded the village for miles. Everyone who wasn't was here in town taking turns teaching the rookies what they didn't want to learn or playing their crafts.

Fay started off towards the town hall, wondering if Brent would wake today. It had been almost a full week since the incident that gave him the gauntlets of fate and the entire time he never once awoke. Fay couldn't find anything wrong with him, except that his arms would occasionally bleed under the gauntlets. She was beginning to worry; if he didn't wake soon he would waste away to nothing. Water and broth pored down his throat wouldn't keep him alive forever.

She entered his room and saw that Alex was there like always. Alex had taken to nursing Brent without a second thought. He acted like it was his duty, and from his stories it sounded like it was. Currently Alex was poring over another book, saying that Brent should have a crest right after putting on the gauntlets and that he meant to find why he didn't.

Fay hopped up no the cot and checked the bandages hiding the gauntlets for blood. Then she checked his eyes but they didn't react when she opened them with her claws and shined a light in them. Sometimes she thought he was brain dead but then he would mumble under his voice or shift in his sleep. She had tried everything to wake him but nothing worked.

She tried smelling salts again before leaving and still they had no effect. She went back outside and because she had nothing else to do sat under the giant tree in the center of the village. She watched her fiend Violet, a tall shapely Lillymon in a dark blue dress, as she tried getting a group of rookies to practice their math. She wasn't doing too well but she was often the teacher in these small classes. Violet said she liked teaching and spending time around rookies, Fay thought Violet wanted a few in training of her own.

Fay was considering climbing the giant tree and looking out towards one of the other towns with the telescopes up at the top. It was a silly idea that someone had to put big telescopes at the top of the tree. There was no reason and they didn't do anything but they were there and nobody wanted to carry them back down. She decided that it wouldn't hurt to do a little climbing as she started for the flight of stars that spiraled up around the enormous trunk towards the first road wide braches high above the ground.

She was just taking her second step up the stairs when she heard shouts behind her. She turned back and saw a long plume of dust rising above the fruit groves to the north along the wide dirt road. She didn't know what was going on, the north road never saw that much traffic until the merchant trains came from Fire-Glade at the end of next season.

Fay sat down on the first step and watched as the rookies went crazy after they saw the plume of dust. They must have thought it was another traveling show, and Fay thought it wasn't a bad guess. A traveling show might head south to escape the winter up north, and the shows could survive in the smaller towns doing only their smaller acts. Fay laughed as Violet was pulled along by a pack of rookies towards the road.

Then the first rider entered the village through the large arch over the road. It wasn't a cart or truck but a strange digimon she had never seen before. It was a tall pale-skinned humanoid clad in leather and spikes and had a third red eye glaring out from his forehead and a long reptile tail. He had heavy metal claws and metal plated boots and a pair of guns, one on his back and the other hanging on his hip. He rode a large red motorcycle that roared as he leaned hard over the handlebars.

Fay and Violet screamed as the bike came hurtling towards the rookies. The digimon saw the rookies and twisted on the seat, throwing the bike to the side and barely missing a stunned Gotsumon. The bike and digimon went tumbling and sliding across the hard road leaving frightened rookies and a length of bloody, oil stained dirt behind them.

Fay was already running before the digimon had started his slide and found she was shouting for Violet to get the rookies inside as she passed them. Before she reached him though he had managed to untangle himself from his twisted bike and get to his knees. "Are you ok? I'm a healer, just stay calm and I can fix you up like new", she had just stopped beside him when someone else entered town.

There was a large Tankmon fallowed by six cloaked figures on sweat-lathered horses. The Tankmon kept on going forward making Violet rush the rookies out of its way faster, the six figures in their white cloaks stayed near the arch over the road. Violet managed to get the last of the rookies into the schoolhouse nearby while the Tankmon studied Fay and the strange digimon.

As soon as the last rookie disappeared from view the white-cloaked figures came forward, silently surrounding Fay, the Tankmon and the strange digimon. One of the cloaked figures spoke but Fay couldn't tell witch. "Gatomon. Do you help this digimon? Know that if you do you will suffer its fate."

Fay winced at the words and the voice, cold and dispassionate, even machine digimon had some warmth. She took a step back but the digimon reached out and griped her leg. She looked down into his three eyes full of fear and heard him whisper, "Give it to him." She felt something stab her foot and leapt away with a howl. His claws had cut into her leg and foot.

"No she isn't his conspirator. She will go and tend her wounds while we question this digimon." Fay didn't get to say another word as the Tankmon lifted her and started towards the schoolhouse.

She struggled to free herself but its grip was too strong. She slapped its barrel nose to get its attention, "hey Mr. Trigger finger. I need to go over there." She pointed towards town hall. She hadn't expected it to matter what she said but surprisingly it did turn and roll towards town hall. It sat her down inside and then wouldn't move away from the door.

She limped down the hall leaving a red paw print every other step. She could have gone to her house to clean and dress her foot but she also wanted to see if Alex knew what was going on and there were bandages in Brent's room. She opened the door and found Alex asleep in his chair with a book hanging from his fingers. She limped over and started poking his knee with her claws and calling his name.

After the first couple pokes she gave up and hoped up on his lap and slapped his face a few times. He sat up, making Fay fall from his lap, and looked over at Brent first thing. Then he saw his blooded clothes and a bleeding Fay, "what happened to you, and why did you decide to stain by best loin cloth"

She went over to the small washstand in the corner and started cleaning her foot in the basin of water. "I was outside when this biker digimon came roaring into town and nearly ran over the Violet and her class. He managed to miss them but trashed himself and his bike. Then a strange group came in after him, a brain dead Tankmon and a bunch of strange digimon in cloaks. They are after him for something, probably broke a law or something up north, and thought I might be helping him. I would have helped him too, if he didn't decide to stab my foot with his claws."

Alex came over with a roll of bandages and started wrapping her foot for her as she went on. "The Tankmon brought me over here and is blocking the main doors. I think that biker digimon might be a spy. The cloaked ones mentioned questioning while the Tankmon brought me over here. OW, easy with that." Fay smacked Alex's hands away and felt around in a particularly deep cut in her foot. She pulled out something and tossed it into the water basin thinking the digimon had broken off a claw tip.

She started wrapping her foot again while Alex started trying to get the blood from his clothes before it stained. "He didn't look like a bad guy, well actually he did but if he was he would have just drove over the rookies and kept on going. And the whole time those strange digimon in cloaks where around him he didn't even reach for his guns. He could be insane I suppose, what with him stabbing my foot and saying 'give it to him.'"

Fay found herself held up to Alex's face staring into his eye behind its cracked helmet. "Was this a tall pale digimon with a tail and three eyes?" his eyes where burning with that intensity that made Fay flinch and hope he got his helmet fixed soon.

"Yes he was. What does that matter?" Alex's hands around her body shook, shaking her.

He all but shouted at her, "what did he give you. Where is it." she was getting sick from him shaking her and she was confused as to why he was upset. She wanted down and her arms were pined at her sides, so she bit him. Hard.

He dropped her and stuck his bleeding finger in his mouth. She hit the stand as she fell and knocked it over to. Red water washed across the floor and with it a small metal disk. Alex saw it and dove after it snatching it before it could slip between the floorboards with the water. "I don't believe it. I can't believe that crazy son of a rotten digiegg found it."

"Found what you stupid Angel? And who for that matter?" Fay had landed on her feet but only for the basin of bloody water to break on her head. Her fur was matted down and turned a light shade of pink. And a large lump was forming between her ears.

Alex stumbled back trying to get away from the angry cat digimon. "Just calm down Fay. There isn't time to get angry we need to go save Beezlemon." He sat the disk on Brent's chest and ran from the room. Fay glared after him rubbing the lump on her head before running after him.

In the front hall the Tankmon was crumpled agent the wall with wires trailing lose down from its head. She went out the door without giving it another look, and was almost thrown back in as Alex was sailing backwards. She leapt up over him and landed on the roof awning as Alex landed inside with a crash that shook the building. Fay found herself starring out at the six white-cloaked figures.

Their cloaks where stained red with blood and between them was a rack made with wood torn from the giant tree. The digimon, Beezlemon, was strung up with strips of his leather jacket and the clocked digimon had been driving shards of wood under his pale skin. Blood covered everything and she could see his eyes as they shifted around out of focus, and she could see the muscles in his jaw knotted tight and pulling his face into a horrendous mask of pain.

One of the cloaked digimon had a crossbow made of blue metal with a sparkling blue/silver shaft loaded already. Alex stumbled back out of the door with frost covering his chest. He griped his cracked staff and held it before him, without looking up at her he said in a too calm voice, "you said they were digimon."

Fay dropped to the ground beside him and clicked her claws, "what the are you talking about. What else could they be?"

One of the figures walked forward stopping a few meters away. "You have assaulted defenders of the state, attempted to free a proven criminal. You will be executed and those you know will be held for questioning." That flat expressionless voice was so disturbing that Fay couldn't help but shudder in fear.

Every figure drew a weapon and advanced. Two held swords and another had a bow loaded with a smoldering arrow; the last two each had a pair of daggers. "Fay. Try and get to Beezlemon. He can help fight, even in that shape." Fay wouldn't believe that, but she would get to him and try helping.

Alex jumped into the air and flew up high where he began firing attacks down at the six. His Hand of Fate attack wasn't as powerful as usual because his staff was still cracked from earlier and his aim made him miss every time. The two with the arrows began firing up at him, every arrow bursting into flames or sending out a cloud of ice ahead of it. Alex managed to avoid the arrows but he was beginning to tire already, he was always more the scholar than a warrior.

Fay was left facing four of them with dangerous looking weapons. She decided it was time to think not fight, and her brain said flee. So she ran. She ducked between glowing purple daggers as they were thrust at her and then under a sword with electricity sparking along it. She noticed that their weapons had been bonded with elements and something shouted in the back of her mind but she forgot it as the purple daggers flashed at her again.

She was now trapped in a ring of flashing blades. Purple daggers stirred her fur and she smelled burring hair as she twisted around a thrust of the crackling electric sword. She fell to the ground under a swing of a wooden sword, its edge sharp as steel and coated with a green sap that she just knew was venomous. Then she felt a slick wet blade dig into her shoulder then another glanced along her ribs.

She gasped from the pain before the purple daggers came back, one driven into the ground on each side of her neck. She felt the cloaked digimon move away and tried pushing herself to her feet only drop back as she felt fur shaved from her neck and carried away by the slight breeze from the daggers. She dropped back to the ground and tried not to move.

"Surrender Angemon or the Gatomon dies." She shivered at the voice again, this time she couldn't stop, even when her shaking took move fur off on the blades.

She didn't hear anything for a while but then there was a thump and a grunt. Looking out the corner of her eye she saw Alex forced facedown beside her, his hands tied to his ankles behind his back. She winced as she saw his wings, they where broken in several places and then wrapped around his staff and tied down against his back. He had to be in severe pain but she doubted his grimace was from pain.

The blades where pulled from the ground buy one of the, the things she didn't know what they where. Her tail was yanked hard, making her yelp, and used to tie her hands behind her back, she felt several of the bones in her tail break as the knot was pulled tight. She was tossed over beside Alex.

"So this is how I'm going to die. Stained pink with a shaved neck and tied up with my own tail. And to think I wanted to die as an incredibly old Angewoman surrounded by friends after curing every illness in the digital world. Thank you Alex, I really don't know how I could stand to live a peaceful life." She didn't bother to keep the scorn from her voice. Actually if it wasn't for the whole 'I'm going to die' thing running in her mind she would have had trouble denying that she was exhilarated.

Then her mind went blank as she saw a nightmare began to form, Violet and the rookies had lined up and were about to attack. Violet might be ok but the rookies would get split apart. Alex and her hadn't even been able to hit these things and as weak as fighters they where Violet was worse.

Brent>

Brent awoke on a hard bed and felt horrible, no he felt hungry. He sat up and pulled his glasses on, looking around for food he found himself in a wreaked room. The washstand was tipped and the water bowl shattered. Books where scattered in plies around a chair in the corner. But his attention was on the sticky red paw prints and a pink tint spread across the floor, he knew blood when he saw it. He stood up and was almost knocked down by hunger.

"How long have I been out?" of course there wasn't an answer because there wasn't anybody around. Ignoring his stomach as it tried teaching him German he found his shirt and boots and pulled them on. Then he noticed the bandages running from his elbows to his fingertips, he already knew what was under them so he left them in place. He was surprised that they didn't feel strange. In fact it felt like they weren't even there, he knew they where but they didn't feel it.

Brent hobbled out the open door and down the hall, his every muscle stiff and tired as if he had been working all day without a break. He found a disabled Tankmon near the door outside and spent a few moments studying it. He gave up trying to understand the imposable tangle of wires when his stomach said something he thought translated as 'feed me or I will eat your liver'. He was laughing at the idea when he stepped outside.

He stopped dead still wondering if this was a play with a very gruesome script. Digimon in blood-covered cloaks stood facing a long row of rookies and a blue dressed Lillymon. Back behind the bloody figures was what convinced him this was no play. Alex, Fay and what looked like Beelzamon where in what must have been very painful positions.

_"So after five hundred years a handful of shock troops can capture two champions and a worn down old mega. I hope someone out here still knows how to fight or I might just be locked up again."_ Brent fell over as a voice began speaking to him. It seamed a familiar voice but he had never heard it before.

He pulled himself back to his feet and looked around for someone speaking to him. _"Don't act an idiot Brent. You know where I am. And even if you pressed it into your subconscious we have been training your mind for days. We have a long way to go still but a few days should be enough to beat some shock troops. So stop wasting time and go save those children."_

Brent didn't know how but he found himself running forward. He leapt up and thought he was going to hit the Lillymon but he kept on going up, he went right over her head by a foot and landed in a crouch with his fists pressed to the ground. He blinked at the strange cloaked digimon and found something in him getting mad, it wasn't him he was just confused.

He looked back over his shoulder while keeping the cloaks, as he decided to call them, in the corner of his sight. "You can stay but I don't think the children need the data kicked out of them." That wasn't some mystery thought or strange voice, that was him speaking. He decided he might as well play the hero, it did feel kind of cool.

The Lillymon, and most the rookies, had a stunned look on her face. She shook herself and turned to the rookies, herding them away to the town hall and telling them something he couldn't hear. Some of them wanted to help but she just pushed them along. Then she came back, using her wings to float above the ground. Her hands pressed together and a bud grew around them, she struck a pose and smiled at him. He couldn't help but smile a bit himself as he gave his attention back to the cloaks.

They seemed to be studying him. It felt odd being looked at like that, like they thought him a stray dog. One of the cloaks, maybe the one with the wooden sword, spoke, "soldier." That word held the sting of a reprimand and Brent never liked being bossed around, "Soldier you will surrender and be returned to your squadron commander for punishment."

The cloak with the daggers dripping water moved forward, holding both daggers in one hand and drawing a black circle from under its cloak. The circle looked like the black rings from the show, and Brent certainly didn't want to see if it worked on him. But when he tried moving his muscles wouldn't move, they weren't stuck and nothing held him. He just couldn't move.

Then as the cloak reached down to clasp the ring around his neck his muscles responded. He leaned back and griped the wrist holding the collar, pulling the cloak over his head as he fell back. That wasn't what he wanted to do but it worked, he rolled with the cloak pinning it beneath him and smacked it across its hidden face.

He leapt away from the cloak as an arrow passed through where his chest just was and found himself holding the cloak's daggers. _"I didn't teach you that. But it works. Get rid of those things, you don't need them."_ There was that voice again. Brent didn't know what it was but he didn't care. He griped the daggers tighter; a weapon he understood was better than the thoughts drifting up from his mind.

He crossed the daggers down before him to block a sweeping cut, only to get thrown away as lightning ran into him. He pulled himself up and looked at the weapons again, they where all using a different kind of power. He ran back at the cloak with the crackling sword and attacked, not letting his wet blades touch the sword.

Then the cloak with the wind daggers joined them, Brent was amazed at how fast he began to move. He slipped around every thrust sword and turned aside every slashing dagger, he was only defending he noticed so he struck out before any more cloaks could gang up on him. His wet blades sank into blooded cloth on either side of him before striking metal with a clang.

He and the cloaks leapt away from each other, they each had a long jagged tear in their cloaks now. Revealing the plated armor underneath. Brent looked over to see how the Lillymon was doing, only to see her pressed to the ground with the bow-wielding cloak pressing a foot to her back. The voice came back again, _"how soft has the world gotten if an ultimate is captured by shock troops. I thought I told you to drop those daggers." _

Brent was starting to dislike this obnoxious voice that spoke only to him. He muttered under his voice, "I like these daggers. I fight better with a weapon." The cloaks had backed away and where talking amongst themselves so he waited to see what was going to happen.

Then he saw that the cloak he took his daggers from was up again and holding a long curled whip ending in steel thorns. _"You have weapons fool. You _are _a weapon now. Use your training, let your instincts guild you." _

Brent never thought the voice would answer but he didn't have time for a conversation because the cloaks turned back to him. "Soldier what is your rank and squadron. And what purpose is there in defying our lords?" the voice was beginning to show some emotion, mostly frustration and anger.

Brent opened his mouth but what came out wasn't what he wanted to say, "Brent Miller. First lieutenant second class, serial number 00000 under the high commander the Deliverer of Fate." He blinked at his own words, the name was right but he hadn't a clue as to the rest of it.

The cloaked figures weren't blinking, "you have clamed a fallen army that has been defied five hundred years ago in an attempt to usurp the thrones. You have named yourself traitor and will be given a public execution before the assembled court."

"_What are they saying? There wasn't a court for almost a hundred years before I was locked away. They will probably say something about a proclamation saying that you are to be hanged from the tallest tree and your body taken back for display."_ Brent didn't like all this talking, he wanted a fight. No actually he wanted food but it had to wait until he beat these cloaks.

"Under the proclamation of the high lady Jasmine, you and this town will be burnt to the ground with everyone in it." it was nice to see the voice in his head wrong but hanging from a tree was better then a town full of digimon roasting because of him. The cloaks began removing their cloaks. Brent took a step back when he saw that they weren't digimon, they where humans in armor. Each set of armor was crafted in a stile matching its weapons and elements.

The man in armor made from smooth tree bark stepped forward while the other five used strips of torn cloak to bind the Lillymon tight. Brent griped his daggers tighter, felling the grip creak as his strength pressed them into his hands. "I will capture you myself while my squad takes these prisoners back." Sure enough the other five armored people started dragging Fay, Alex and the Lillymon and Beezlemon towards the six horses standing calmly near the road out of town.

"_They can't fight well but I suppose any fighters are better than none. You wont get past him fast enough to get them back before they are a few miles down the road. Ask him for right of protector. It should work unless these zombies are without any teachings of the proper forms." _That voice was very irritating but Brent didn't really want the only digimon he knew carried off.

Brent stepped forward and tossed his daggers into the ground a step ahead of him, "I ask for the right of protector over those you hold." He waited calmly, ready to dive after the daggers again if the man attacked.

All the armored men, and two women by the shaped breastplates, stopped and looked at their wood-plated leader. "I accept your request. The weapons will be swords here within a ring of twenty paces. The loser submits his life in place of those under the call of protected."

Brent gaped at the man, and the voice in his head, _"they changed it some. Before it was only the challenged right to chose weapons not the location."_ The man in silver armor carved with bolts of lightning came forward and offered Brent his sheathed sword. Brent found himself taking it with a nod and strapping it to his belt with practiced motions he had never done before.

In a circle around them the other five began driving daggers and short knifes into the ground and stringing a long gold wire around them all. Leavening Brent and the wooden man inside an inch tall ring twenty feet around. Brent drew the crackling sword and gave the man a flourishing bow that left his sword upright behind his back.

The man gave the same bow and flourish but held his sword before his face. The man struck out first, thrusting in at Brent's heart. Brent stepped away and reversed his grip pulling his sword out before him, swinging the tip down and pushing the thrust away. Brent danced back, his down facing sword moving only to push the wooden sword away from his flesh.

Brent had never liked swords much, preferring a good staff or club in a fight, but he couldn't believe that he diverted every slash and trust while his hand held the sword like a dagger ready to stab. _"Focus Brent. That blade is poison a scratch could kill. Then where would I be, stuck on a statue again chatting with your ghost while your body rotted in some shallow grave. Attack. You are almost exhausted and if you don't hurry you are going to fall over and he could take his time carving you to peaces while that poison burned in your veins." _

The voice was right Brent was exhausted. He still moved faster then he could understand but he might make a mistake soon. He turned away another blow and spun his hand on the sword hilt, smacking the wooden sword away and slashing out. His sword tore at the wooden armor, scraping away bark as energy blackened the wood underneath.

Brent stepped around a slash and struck out again, his blade snaking down between the plates of armor near the man's shoulder and into flesh beneath. The man shuddered as lightning coursed into his body and blood ran from under his armor and down his side. Brent stepped back parrying a weak slash, he wasn't worried about blood. He had spilt blood before this and it most times it wasn't his.

The man now held his sword in one hand as his other hung limp, "you fight well Brent Miller, First lieutenant second class. But all rebellions end, and this one will end here." The man was back to that deadpan voice again. Brent was tired and hungry but this fool didn't want to quit, why didn't he give up.

As if someone else was moving it Brent saw his sword come up and slash the thrusting wooden blade away before driving forward and sinking into the neck of the man. The man dropped his sword and reached up to his neck, his finger feeling the blade point entering his armor. His eyes opened wide behind his visor of woven leaves, almost as wide as Brent's were, before falling backwards.

Brent saw the man fall back and land with a light thump and then nothing. The man didn't move again he just lay there as blood pooled under his shoulder. Brent was aware of the other armored men and women moving around but he didn't move. He stared down at the dead man, the man he had killed. His hand twitched dropping the sword but he just stared on in horror.

Fay>

Fay couldn't believe what she was seeing. Brent was fighting the leader of the armored humans. Humans! What Alex had been saying a few days ago, these where humans in the royal army. And Brent was fighting them, and doing great.

She watched him fight with the leader in a ring of gold wire looped around dagger hilts. Brent moved with a grace and fluidity that Fay doubted she could copy. His sword flashed in long arks trailing sparks of lighting as he blocked and turned the man's attacks away.

She didn't know how he was moving. "He shouldn't be out of bed." She said to herself.

"He will need a bed after this." Alex had managed to get into a sitting position. "The sprit is filling him and is probably the only way he is moving at all. He will collapse soon and if he doesn't win before that we are all dead." He started over her at the fight and she saw his broken wings flutter around his staff. She winced for him but he showed no reaction to the pain or her face, his attention was only for the fight.

Fay looked back at Brent, just in time to see his sword strike out. The tip sinking into the armor around the man's neck. Her eyes snapped wide and she heard herself gasp. The man fell backwards, landing with a thump and not moving. Her eyes went back to Brent; his face was blank and his eyes wide. The sword fell from his hand.

She watched him until she saw the other armored human moving. She was about to call out when something yanked her tail. She screeched and looked back at the woman in blue armor that was untying her tail from around her hands. She was about to shout at her when she realized what she was going on, the woman was untying her. She looked at the others and saw a man in purple armor was cutting the bonds from Violet's hands wings and feet.

The other three humans where gathering their blades and the golden thread that had been the ring. One took the sheath from Brent's belt and picked up the dropped lightning sword. As soon as her hands where free and the woman let go of her tail she bolted for Brent. He didn't look at her as she slid to a stop beside him, "I'm sorry Brent. If we had fought better you wouldn't have had to kill him. I'm sorry. But, but think of it another way. You just saved us and the entire town." She didn't think Brent heard her as his lips moved, speaking to himself.

He didn't move a hair and she heard steps behind her. She turned around and found Alex and Violet supporting Beezlamon. The five armored men where riding away from town on their horses, leaving the dead mans body behind without a glance.

"He isn't dead." She turned back and saw Brent on his knees beside the man, fumbling with the man's helm.

She walked over and stood on the other side of the mans head, "Brent he is dead. Lying wont change what happened. Now …" Brent found a clasp and the helm pulled away. Showing an old gray-bearded face with high cheekbones and deep eyes. Fay saw the man's nostrils flare and sprang into motion. "Brent carry him to my house. This way. Alex bring Beezlemon. Violet you should go find your class."

She escorted a stumbling precession back to her house. Inside she went to work pulling the man's armor from him and stitching and dressing his wounded shoulder. His neck was unharmed and she didn't see the broken black circle as it shattered to dust. She set Alex to work on cleaning Beezlamon's wounds while she forced herbs down the man's throat. After doing what she could for him she went over to Beezlemon, his back was torn from his bike-wreak before and he had many small punctures wound where the humans had driven splinters under his skin, but other than blood loss he was fine. She was a little concerned with some older wounds he had but they where almost fully healed so she ignored them. She couldn't really do anything because his few wounds that needed stitching might have wood fibers that would need digging out later.

She cornered Alex and began setting his wings, she enjoyed his screams as she straightened the bones and put them between splints. And in turn Alex must have enjoyed hers screams as he helped her put her tail in a plaster cast and stitch and rap her shoulder and side. She looked around the room and saw Beezlemon asleep on the exam bed Alex was beginning to lay facedown on one of the small cots she kept in the corner. She didn't see Brent anywhere. Walking into her living room, with her long tail pointed strait out behind her in its cast, she found him asleep on her sofa.

She pulled a blanket over him and turned to go. She stopped inside her bedroom door and looked back at him. He looked peaceful there asleep with his face calm and hand hanging down to the floor holding the man's wooden sword. She was about to climb into bed when what she saw hit her. She ran back out the living room and tried prying his hand from the sword hilt. After a few moments she gave up and got the sheath from the exam room to put the blade in.

She looked back from her doorway again. Now Brent was hugging the sheathed sword to his chest like it was a stuffed animal. Despite how disturbing it was Fay found herself thinking it was cute. "Good night Brent. Don't let your dreams win." She chuckled at the thought as she closed her door and climbed into bed. Laying so her tail didn't bother her she fell asleep just as the clock in the living room chimed noon.

* * *

Narration

From that point on I always had a weapon with me when I slept. Perhaps Fay was right; maybe I didn't want my dreams to win…

* * *

Wow chapter three done and not looking to bad. Let me no what you think.

I didn't describe the armor too much because there isn't much to describe. It is basically full plait mail (with the divided kilts for riding of course) with a few simple decals and a general color. The wooden armor was a bit different, only because it was made of wood instead of metal, but basically the same.

Later


	4. C4

I don't own digimon and it is very unlikely that that will change.

Nothing to say really so here is chapter 4 of IBD. (You know the initials should be IDBD but they just aren't) I finally found music to play for mood setting. If you have it or can find it play 'Kryptonite' by 'Three Doors Down' it is really close to the impression I am aiming for.

* * *

-I didn't believe in destiny,-> 

C4) Friendship --->

narration->

Telling my story to you is making it all come back, little by little. I'm not sure if it all should be told, after all, the past is carved into the bedrock of time. Don't worry, I will still tell you the story…

Brent>

Brent stood atop a ladder amongst the many braches of a tall leafy pear tree. He took a moment to enjoy the sun glittering between the many leaves, giving everything a mystical quality and a green tint. The sent of green growing things was heavy in the air and made his head spin after so long inside.

For two days he was stuck inside, forced by Fay to eat everything he could without bursting and probed for information by Alex. _"This is Not physical training."_ That was something he didn't tell Alex, or anyone. He wasn't overly fond of having a voice in his skull that always talked of the distant past or told him how to kill different digimon or disable weapons and direct military actions.

"Its outside and I am working. Its physical enough." He didn't know why he talked to the voice, under his breath of course, just that it didn't seam to matter if he said anything or not it still knew and would rather hear his own than nothing. Brent reached out and twisted a pear from its branch, dropping it over his shoulder into the tall wicker hamper hung on his back. He was out helping pick fruit with the village digimon, anything was better than laying in bed ignoring Alex's incessant droning about some three kings or royal army.

Brent picked another pear and began to put it with the others when he saw a brown eye looking out from behind the leaves. He decided to ignore it, it was the forth or fifth he had seen watching him, and none of them where the same pair of eyes. Some of the rookies had snuck back up from the caverns and saw the fight with the armored shock troops.

He made sure his grin was gone before he turned to where the eyes could see him. None of the other villagers believed the rookies and Fay and the others purposely told another story. No one knew that a comatose man was locked down in a cave that Fay's house had a tunnel into. _"you should accept that even if you didn't kill him eventually someone will die at your hands. You are a warrior and warriors kill so that others may live." _

Brent's face became a scowl, "I wont kill anyone. I'm no warrior, I am a fighter. And fighters don't play to kill, they play for the rush of adrenalin as their opponent is beaten down and made to surrender." Brent wasn't sure but he felt the voice leave, a sensation of something suddenly gone and leaving a gap behind.

"do you alvays talk to yoursllef?", Brent twisted around and saw the blue head and white face of Veemon, before he fell from the ladder. thump thankfully the ladder was short enough that nothing was broken, only very painful. "sorry" Veemon dropped down from the tree beside me holding the hamper he had caught. The brown eyes where his, before this all the rookies just avoided Brent or spied on him, this was the first time any of them came and talked to him.

"Veemon get back. You saw what he did before." The owner of the voice was hidden but Brent wagered that it was in the trees too, along with a handful of others. He stood up and brushed the dust from his clothes and tucked the small medallion back under his shirt. He didn't know he was wearing the medallion, his crest, until it got caught on his shirt the other day. It was a small round metal disk of swirled white and black with the crest of fate printed on it with gold. The crest refused to come off his neck, the moment he tried the fine gold chain would tighten around his neck and the crest would adhere to his skin right above his breastbone.

Veemon turned to a different tree and looked right at where the voice was hid, "I don't know vhat I saw. But he just fell from a twee, and I don't think a suber-hero would fall fwom a twee." This Veemon had a lisp far worse than the one Brent remembered from the show, and made no attempt at making his words clearer.

"Silk thread", a long sticky thread came out of another tree and wrapped around Veemon's legs, pulling him up and into the foliage.

While Brent was watching the shaking tree leaves and listened to the muffled sound of fighting something happened he wasn't expecting. "poison ivy" six green vines came from the tree with the first voice and caught his arms, right over the bandages still hiding the gauntlets and yanked him back. He slammed against a tree trunk and while he was still trying to stop the ringing in his head a yellow blur came from somewhere and tied him to the trunk with thick ropes.

"we got him. Tee-Hee. He wasn't that hard to catch." Brent blinked at the rookies as they came out of the foliage. There was Veemon, of course, covered in spots of white webbing. And behind him was a Wormmon sporting a black eye. Over to the side was a Renamon without gloves or tattoos that was currently jumping around singing, "we got him, we got him." Then there was a Palmon with a yellow flower on her head and a toothy grin showing a few missing teeth. And there trying to hide back behind everyone was a very small pink Biyomon with golden tips on her feathers.

It was more than a little odd to Brent that the rookies that had been stalking him where destined digimon in the shows. He hated odd things here, they usually ended painfully and more than a little bloody. it was becoming a normal occurrence for him to be tied up, far too normal for his likening, he struggled to get free of the ropes.

"yeah. We caught him. So if he is a gweat hewo like we saw how did we catch him." Veemon was actually more understandable with a swelling lip. Brent twisted around trying to reach his pocketknife but the Renamon darted in and pulled the ropes tighter. As Brent wheezed in what air he could she calmly searched his pockets, taking the knife and lighter and the nice handkerchief Alex had given him.

From back behind everyone came the small voice of the Biyomon, "maybe it was the sword that made him so good." The statement clearly made them think, they began to wander away towards the tree where Brent had been picking pears. So Brent was left wheezing for air and deciding he would catch them all and spank them for this.

Brent was getting lightheaded from too little air when the voice returned, _"I'm gone a few moments and you get caught by a couple of rookies. This is embarrassing, for me. You must be humiliated. So I suppose you want to know how to get free?" _

Brent had to gasp deeply several times, making the rope dig into his chest before he could speak, "no. I am going to get out myself. Now shut up and let me think" Brent was beginning to get very dizzy and wondered if this would be considered as a slow asphyxiation. He heard a slight tearing sound and rolled his head towards the sound, he had been flexing his hands and the bandage on one had caught on the tree. And now three armored fingers tipped in sharp claws where showing.

Twisting his wrist he began to cut at the first rope around his waist, the short claws making the work slow and hard going. After a blink the claws looked longer and they cut faster as if shaper than before. The first rope broke with a slight pop, the slack letting Brent breathe a little easer. "He's getting out!" Brent looked up at the rookies in time to see Wormmon shoot another sticky thread, the white goop trapping Brent's hand against the tree.

"give him another layer Wormmon. We don't want him getting away before we find out how he beat those other humans when Violet couldn't." Brent amended his earlier thoughts, only the Palmon would get spanked for this and he planed to remove the bandages from his gauntlets first. Wormmon started spraying layer after layer of webbing across Brent trapping him farther and soon only his head was free of the white sticky ball attached to the tree.

He was outright angry now but worse than that, he was beginning to freak out, his eyes started to dilate and his breathing came in and out in a panting rush. "hey are you ok?" the Wormmon had crawled up the tree and was beside Brent' head. Brent shook his head and was trying to move any part of his body but the webbing held too tight and clung to everything like glue.

The rookies where all staring at him now but his sight had narrowed down to the ball of cotton candy he was encased in. over and over his thoughts shot around his head, 'trapped! Trapped! Got to escape, run. Run away.' His thought told him the ball was tightening, squeezing him making it hard to breathe.

"Black Pulse!", Brent screamed out those strange words and everything flashed with darkness around him. When he came to later, he wasn't sure how much later, he was clinging hard to the blackened bark of the tree. His claws and armored fingers sunk down deep into the living wood as his breathing returned.

When finally he understood what he was seeing he gasped and felt the wood under his fingers crack as his hands tensed. All around him for twenty yards every tree was bare of leaves and fruit, looking like trees during a long drought. Pulling his hands free he looked at the tree he had been tied to and saw it had turned nearly black and was missing all but its oldest branches.

_"well that was interesting. I didn't think you would use that attack given all your talk of not killing." _Brent felt his heart skip a beat at the voice's words.

Brent had to lick his lips a few time before talking, "what do you mean. What did I do." Brent thought he had drank all the sands of the deserts with how dry his throat had become.

The voice actually laughed, the sound ringing around inside Brent's mind. _"you used the black pulse. It drained the energy from everything all around you, restoring your heath but also weakening everything near you. Those rookies' fractal codes are probably ready to shatter." _

Brent couldn't think as he began running around the trees looking for the digimon he had hurt. He found Renamon first, grabbing her and taking her back to the blackened tree he returned to looking. Then he found Biyomon and Veemon hanging limply from the braches of a tree. Then he found Wormmon half barred under the roots of a tree where the attack had driven him. Finally he found Palmon lying battered and bruised under the branch she had hit and broken off after her short flight during his attack.

Now that he had them all lined up before the blackened tree his thoughts came back in a rush and he let them come out his mouth. "I didn't do this. I couldn't have done this. Look at them, they are just kids. I didn't do this. You did this you bastard. Help them. Heal them." The last of his words where directed to the voice in his mind and his hysteria was clear in the high tone he screamed those last words in.

The voice was silent for long moments before speaking, _"there is one way but you wouldn't survive it five times, not all at once even on rookies." _

Brent didn't answer because an image came into the back of his mind. A pair of gauntlets like he wore, the very ones actually, placed on the fractal code of a blackened digimon and began mending the cracks and tears with small bits of fractal code taken from his own body.

The image passed and Brent dropped to his knees waiting. And as if it had been waiting for Brent to ready himself the fractal code appeared around Wormmon. Brent reached out and griped it, feeling it slither and twist like a serpent of life energy. Under his gauntlets he could feel countless cracks and knew they would heal by themselves and couldn't be helped, feeling along with his hands he found it. The short gap, nothing more than a centimeter thick but deadly to a digimon. Without caring how or even about the pain it caused him he reached his glowing hand into his chest, his hand passing into him easier than into water, and pulled a piece of glowing light from his chest.

The pain continued to burn in him as the light replaced the gap and Wormmon returned to his normal coloring as his code returned to him. _"you saved him. Not a bad chose for your first…"_ Brent didn't know how he had silenced the voice or even gave it a second of thought. He sat back on his heels and waited for the next fractal code to appear, still feeling as if a part of his body was torn away.

Renamon and then Biyomon, they laid silently unconscious after he had given them part of his own fractal code and he hoped they would be ok, he hoped they all would be. He ignored the burning pain in his body and began working on Veemon's fractal code. He could feel Veemon's life energy jump and writhe under his hands, fighting him, fighting death, and fighting just to fight.

Before he had even let go of Veemon's code Palmon's burst from her body as if trying to escape. Brent snapped out a hand and griped tight as it tried to fly out into the world. His other hand guided Veemon's fractal code gently back into him and saw the colors return to the black statue that was Veemon.

Turning his attention back to the code in his hand trying to escape he felt the pain of his own lost code beat in his mind and body with an irregular thumping, and in a corner of his mind he knew it was his heartbeat. His own life was as thin as the one beginning to fade in his fist. He didn't care. He reached into his chest again feeling the pain double as his fingers tore another peace of himself free and heard his heart stop for a few moments before laboring on.

He stared down at the fractal code griped tight in his fist and then at the shining light he held in his hand. Then with a thrust he drove the light, part of his life, into the widening gap of the fractal code. The light and code tried pulling away but he griped each hard and twisted them closer together, blending them until one was like the other. He saw her coloring returning before the world spun and he fell to the ground besides her idly wondering what his own fractal code looked like before everything turned black and silent.

Fay>

Fay was sitting in her living room writing in her journal. She had been neglecting it lately and was now trying to catch up with what had been happening. Some of the things she wrote, most of them actually, she couldn't believe even now. She shifted her set trying to get comfortable but her tail in its log hard cast made any seat uncomfortable and the stab in her shoulder throbbed even just from her moving her pen across the page.

She smiled as she heard some near silent swearing behind her as Alex tried coming into the room. his wings had to be splinted and kept spread wide so they would heal properly and because of this he had to duck low and step sideways through doors. She was smiling because it was so strange to hear an angelic digimon swear, especially with some of the more vulgar combinations he used.

Fay closed her journal and clicked the lock before the swearing behind her stopped. Alex came into the room and stood near the mantle of the small fireplace, a fireplace that Fay could never remember needing before and almost never using. Alex had finally gotten around to fixing his helmet but his staff was still cracked and looked about ready to snap in two.

He didn't say a word as he stood there and Fay was wondering why he could be there. It couldn't be about the man down in her supply cave, the dugout cave where she stored her herbs and medicines as well as a few older journals locked in a chest.

She sat her journal down on the coffee table and slid the key under her glove. "what is it Alex. If you want to know about your wings its still going to be just as many days as you asked this morning." She saw his frown, not his everyday one but the bad news one and a thought occurred to her. "please tell me that Brent didn't go and get in a fight with someone."

While Brent had been recovering she had managed to dig out more about him. He was what he called a street fighter, someone who will fight anyone, anywhere, with anything often until surrender or a terrible injury took someone out of the fight. Somehow she ended up listening to one of his more gruesome fight stories. Him and a friend against a five others. His friend had walked away with a dislocated shoulder and a smashed jaw and Brent had taken only a few cuts. She winced as she remembered the list he gave for the other five, most of witch left them in the hospital for days.

Alex pulled her from her thoughts with a shake of his head before she could begin recalling the blow-by-blow account Brent had given her. "no but I am concerned that the royal army might return."

"why? they left after they thought Brent killed their leader. They couldn't be coming back for him they thought he was dead. And very nearly he was." she still didn't know why the man was comatose but she had hopes he would wake. After he woke up she would have to wonder what to do with him but not right now.

"the shock troops left. And even if they never come back they will report what has happened and others will be sent to, to _deal_ with us. The town could be run under with little trouble by a medium troop of Calvary and Brent isn't strong enough to fight even one Calvary knight." He began to lean back against the mantle but straitened up with wince as his wings bumped the clock on the mantle.

Fay saw her claws beginning to cut into the couch arm and pulled her hands(paws or whatever) away. "then we need to get the everyone out of town. We can call a town meeting after the elders get back from the mill." Even as she was saying it she realized just how hard it would be to leave herself, not to mention having to convince everyone in town to leave what had been their families homes for more generations than anyone could recall.

"we could never get them to leave. And even if we could there would be nowhere they could all go. And a group of digimon this big would be too easy for the royal army to fallow." Beezlemon had come in after Alex but had stayed so silent Fay hadn't even known he was there. He struck her as very strange, he wasn't the fist mega she had meet, she hadn't meet many though, but he was extremely old. he never responded to anything except Beezlemon and said he had never taken a name. And then there was that bike of his, the day after his wreck he had gotten out of bed almost entirely healed and went outside for less then an hour. He had totally repaired his bike in under an hour.

"then what should we do? If they come back everyone will be killed. We have to do something." Fay was getting even more scared than she thought possible. Beezlemon walked over beside Alex and she was suddenly struck by an unbelievable thought that slid from her mouth. "you two are related."

She didn't know why she had said it but just the way they stood and moved and the hard angular lines of their faces screamed relations. It was impossible, or next to it really, virus digimon and vaccine digimon rarely had such mixed families to produce two such drastically different types of digimon that shared so many traits. She was about to apologue for her stupidity when Alex cut her off, "yes actually. Beezlemon is my younger brother. I was hoping no one would notice because the first questions is always, 'how is he your younger brother?' am I right Fay?"

Fay closed her jaw with a click knowing that, that was exactly what she was going to ask. She had another one as well but it was a little too personal to ask, she wondered how it was possible for a demonic virus digimon and a vaccine angelic digimon could be brothers. Whenever a virus digimon laid an egg that had a vaccine father the digimon inside would be a virus and vise-versa for a mother vaccine and father virus. Data digimon could have either but it tended to go towards the fathers type or if both parents where data digimon they could have anything. But data types that had an egg with another data always laid the same type after the first.

Her head was spinning and she didn't even try asking any of the new questions forming in her mind, it was far worse than rude to ask into someone's genetics. The two brothers must have been used to the confusion caused by their imposable being because Beezlemon began speaking, not caring that he was speaking of something considered extremely personal in most the digital world. "our mother was a Garudamon and our father a Megaseadramon, talk about a strange marriage, they don't get much stranger than that. Anyhow dearest mummy's first egg hatched as twins, odd enough in the world but even odder was that one was a virus the other a vaccine, Alex here. So like true genetics next time she had an egg, something that nearly drove dad into the seabed with shock, she had another egg hatch with twins. One vaccine and the other viral, me."

"as for how I'm the older brother while he looks far older is a story that is too long to tell because of more pressing matters. We need leave. Just us Fay. You, Brent, Violet, Beezlemon and myself. We are the ones they are after and they will likely leave the town alone after searching it and not finding us." Alex was obviously trying not to shock her anymore than she was but it still did just that.

She thought leaving the village with everyone else would be the hardest thing she could do but her heart actually felt tight as she realized that she wasn't going to just leaving behind her life with a place she loved but with so many old friends that she may never see the village again, never return home. she had to clear her throat several times before she could speak, "how long do we have before we have to leave?" voicing the words hurt even more than the thoughts had but she wouldn't have her home destroyed because it hurt her to leave.

"we should leave at once but we have perhaps three weeks before the shock troops reach anywhere that can carry a message ahead of them. From that point we could have as little as another two weeks depending on the troops they send and how they send them. We can't wait here any longer than a week and still have any hope of escaping." Beezlemon spoke with the clam demeanor of someone used to running away and not likening it but knowing that getting caught was worse.

Before the conversation could continue any farther the door in the clinic slammed open and there was a good deal of shouting. Fay feared the worst as she sprang over the back of the couch, even if it had nothing to do with the royal army or Brent the few times she was needed this urgently meant someone was seriously hurt.

She had no time to even be surprised by the flood of digimon in her clinic. She began to literally toss out anyone not hurt at a glance. Once that was done she found herself with a truly shocking sight, five rookies badly injured and unconscious and Brent in a much better physical state but also unconscious. She began working immediately, jumping from cot to cot finding the rookies in better shape than they looked.

She couldn't find anything physically wrong with Brent except a somewhat irregular pulse and nothing she could do about it. the rookies where worse than she could imagine coming from anything except an attack, a powerful attack. But for every cracked bone or dislocated joint she set she found herself questioning what attack could do so much harm and not kill. There where few cuts or scratches and they could have easily came from anything but almost every inch of their bodies where bruised.

Finally she slumped down against Biyomon's cot. She considered getting a few painkillers for her tail when Alex came out of the living room with Beezlemon behind him. Alex knew better than to bother her while she was in any kind of situation like this but now that she was done he came in and saw Brent. he all but flew to Brent's side, she had expected that reaction from him but not for Beezlemon to do much the same. They both talked to each other silently and she made no attempt to hear them.

She took a pill bottle from a cabinet and swallowed a few pills before walking outside and into a churning mass of worried pacing parents. She was almost thrown back inside by the sudden rush of questions concerning their children.

She started on her left and worked around talking to each pair of parents, or parent in two cases.. She made her way down the line of parents comforting and reassuring them that their children would be fine. She told them she wanted to keep them for at least the night to watch them and that they could visit when they woke up.

She got down to the end of the line and found herself facing Renamon's mother, a Kiubimon named Jean. the two of them were new to the village, having only moved in about three years ago and neither ever mentioned a father or husband. Truth be told Fay wasn't the only one in the village intimidated by Jean. Somehow Fay managed to convince Jean to come back later after her daughter awoke and not tear Fays doorway apart trying to get in, Fay's doorway being built for digimon of about human size and smaller.

Then she had to deal with Vincent, for a sheriff he was a very easily unsettled digimon. "are Biyomon and Veemon ok? Please let them be ok. Are they hurt very badly? They looked so bad when I saw them." Fay could understand his worry, she was feeling it towards Brent, disturbing as it was to her, and it seamed to grow stronger every time Brent wound up unconscious.

She told him much the same thing she had told everyone else but had to say it many time over before he began to calm down. Vincent was Biyomon and Veemon's father and ever since their mother had died he had become very concerned for their safety. He wasn't overprotective, far from it in fact, he was just always worried for them. Everyone could see Biyomon's mother in her, she even looked like her mother when her mother was a rookie, but it was clear she would always be a timid digimon.

Veemon on the other hand was only like his father in the fact that they where both blue. When he was a rookie Vincent was always the last one to do anything, preferring to sit around and watch TV until his friends dragged him out to play. Veemon was the opposite in many things. He would be the first one to take a dare, several of which Fay had to give him stitches for, and pick a fight. He actually was a lot like Brent in those regards.

"Vincent." She called to him as he started to walk away. She saw him pale and realized what he was thinking, "I have a question for the sheriff." The made his color return and puffed out his chest with pride. "what happened to them out there?"

Vincent dropped his eyes and seamed to deflate, "I don't really know. Nobody dose. Sting found them when he went looking for Wormmon, he said he didn't want Palmon influencing his son too much. For twenty feet around every tree was withered as if it had been suddenly forced into a dry spell, worse than that one a few years back. The kids and Brent where under a nearly dead-dry blackened tree in the center just like how we brought them to you."

"do you think it was a wild one?" Fay had other thoughts about what it may have been but she wouldn't say them, even to Vincent who had some understanding of Brent.

Vincent shook his head and twitched his wings, a gesture that he did when totally confused, "I don't know what it was. except for the kids and Brent there wasn't any other tracks or scents. And if a wild one that powerful was there why did it attack them, and further more why did it let them survive. I honestly don't think _all _the kids could have taken down something that did what it had to the trees."

Fay had caught the slight change in tone he gave that word, he didn't think Brent and the rookies could have defeated it. she kept her face blank somehow, "thank you Sheriff. Ill let you know when they are awake." Vincent went off towards the split-sized home he still lived in with Veemon and Biyomon despite the larger rooms having been made for a much larger digimon like his wife had been.

Fay turned and reentered he house only to find total chaos. Brent was still unconscious but Alex was shouting and Beezlemon was keeping a very angry looking couple of rookies from attacking Alex, but just barely.

She considered just leaving and coming back after this had sorted itself out. But if she did that she would probably find someone needing bandaged up again, and nobody in the room needed any more bandages than they already had. She walked into the room laughing at the thought of nine Mummymons fighting and screaming at each other.

Everyone stopped screaming and struggling to stare at her like she had lost her mind. she couldn't stop and soon everyone was laughing and she doubted anyone knew why except her.

She finally sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes, the pain in her side was only part of the reason she had stopped. "so why are you trying to kill Alex?" the laughter stopped dead, and she looked around at the rookies. They where all looking over, not at Alex but at Brent where he was still unconscious. There faces where a big blend of emotions that she could sort free, but right on top was resentment.

"what happened out there? What attacked you?" nobody looked at her as they pulled their eyes away from Brent, looking anywhere except her and each other. She really hated being around Brent when he did or caused something like this, and the funny thing is he often did too.

"it turns out that the children here decided to get the answers Alex and you refused to give them. They cornered Brent and tied him to a tree and were planning to tickle him and feed him livered beets until he told them." Beezlemon was just as crisp as always but his voice had a bit of humor in it, he even had a faint twist in his lips that could have been a smile.

"he flipped out and tossed this funky attack at us." Renamon was far from her usual hyper self, she looked ready to cry.

"it was this big black ball that spread out around everything." Wormmon managed to speak past the several layers of bandage holding his cracked exoskeleton around his head together until it fused again, he would probably have some disfiguring ridges across his face.

"the thing tossed us all avay like we wernt anythin." Veemon was all right but his eyes looked a bit lighter then she remembered.

Little Biyomon was actually mad, showing her mother's temper for the first time, "the attack pulled the energy right out of us even as it smashed against us. It rammed into us just like a Miotismon's grisly wing and tore our energy away."

Fay turned her eyes towards the unusually silent Palmon, normally she was very in-your-face but now she was staring at Brent in a silent confusion as her emotions raged against her so strongly Fay could see them as they crossed her face in sudden shifts. Her voice was nearly unperceivable, "he saved us from his own attack. But he also…" her voice cracked and she hid her face in her hands.

Fay heard sobbing and not just from Palmon, Renamon and Biyomon where in each other's arms crying into each other and Veemon had tears trailing down across his face. She couldn't see any tears make it past Wrommon's mask of bandages but she saw in wince as the salty water stung his wounds.

She didn't know what he had done to them but she found herself on the verge of hating him, all it would take is knowing what to toss he over that line and she would kill him with her own claws.

"he saved their lives." Fay turned and found Alex had a similar wash of emotions playing across his face. "they would have died if he hadn't. but the price they paid is terrible when not given a chance to choose. Brent also paid, even more they did but they will feel their own far more than he will ever feel his own."

"what was it he did?", She didn't know what to feel now. Brent had hurt the children and then saved them only to trap both them and himself in something. Something that sounded even more horrible because Alex acted as if he had been though it as well, and was just as unsettled.

"Brent bonded his fractal code to their own. They will age slower and feel his emotions even half way around the world. They are bound to him, compelled to obey his every word until their deaths. Trapped into his service because he didn't want to be responsible for their death. He will never understand what he has done to them because they can never tell him." Fay sat down on the floor with a thump, not even feeling the jolt of pain from her tail.

Brent was sitting up and looking over at her. But it wasn't Brent, his eyes were like carved blue-green stone and his voice was louder and held a resonance she remembered. This wasn't Brent Speaking, it was Fate. "he can't accept blood on his hands. He refuses to take life but is more than willing to fight to defend it, despite any risk to himself."

"Break the bonding!" the shout came from five different mouths but every one of them was full of quivering rage. Beezlemon stepped closer only to step back as the stone eyes of Fate glanced at him.

"I cant." Fate began to unwind the torn bandages around his gauntlets, the sight of them made the children gasp. "not even Brent can. He will carry his side of the bond until he dies. He will feel every pain you feel, know every emotion in your head and both you and him will draw energy from the bond. You will all be stronger than ever before as long as he remains a part of that bond."

"its slavery." Alex's voice held none of the venom Fay would have used herself, it sounded as if he was resigned to it.

"yes, in a way. The bond carries a compulsion from whoever forged it, Brent, into the one the link holds. He won't even notice it because most of the thoughts will be down under his subconscious, he has it very cluttered there already. In short if he doesn't want something done you wont be able to do it, your thoughts of doing it will just slide away because his are stronger because of the bond."

With the bandages free of his gauntlets fate flexed his fingers as if seeing how it felt, not the gauntlets but moving. "deep down in his mind I have been training him but every morning when he wakes it gets pushed down because he can't accept any of it. he knows deep down what he did to you but he doesn't want to know that either, so you five will never be able to tell him it unless he opens his mind."

Fate's hands clenched, crushing the wadded ball of bandages tighter as he turned toward the three older digimon. "and until I find a way of opening his mind and forcing him to accept realty you three will not tell him anything that these five cant. In fact they are now your superior officers. And you Fay have just been drafted to help overthrow the corrupt kings. I don't have enough time before Brent wakes or I would have you swear the oaths of sprit friend."

Without warning Brent slumped forward, sliding from the cot and hitting the floor with a thump. Almost immediately he sat back up and rubbed his head, pulling his hand away as a claw tip scratched him. "what's going on." He saw the rookies and jumped to his feet, only to fall as they refused his weight. He looked up at them as Alex helped him back onto the cot. "I wont ask for forgiveness. I didn't mean to almost kill you but I freak out when I'm trapped." Even with all that was happening Fay realized he suffered from Merinthophobia, a fear of being trapped. "That isn't any kind of excuse, but I don't know what to do, I will find some way to make it up to you."

Fay wanted to say so many different things but the threat in Fate's words, not even hidden, drove them all away. Five voices spoke almost as one, "you will find something, and we plan on being right there to see you do." Fay looked to the rookies and wondered if that was them speaking or the bond pulling them like puppets on strings.

'zzzzzzzzzzz', Fay turned back and saw that Brent was asleep sitting up where Alex had sat him. She gave a sigh and started chasing the rookies into different cots, and pushed the mysterious, more now than ever, brothers out the door.

She walked into her living room again and sat on her couch staring down at the floor and wondering what was left of her old world where the most excitement was when the carnival came to town for more than a month. Where the worst thing she ever had to deal with was a broken bone or crushed foot from a falling tree branch.

She reached out and took her journal from the coffee table. She opened it with the key from her glove and opened to her marker. There in her spiraling handwriting was the last thing she had written, 'I wonder what part of my world will Brent turn upside down next?'

In a fit of anger at her naivety just a few hours ago he stabbed her pen into the page, feeling it punch out the hard cover on the back. She griped the covers of the book and looked at the fireplace for a moment before wrenching the pen free again. writing around the small hole she continued to write where she had left off.

After the clock on the mantle had stuck three she was still writing, after four she heard low voices in the other room but kept writing. Just after five thirty in the afternoon she put her pen down and looked at the last lines, 'I like Brent, he has so many admirable quality. But at the same time I don't think I will ever trust anything to go right when I'm around him. Simply him being here has started changing the world as I thought I knew it.' Fay closed the cover and locked it, after that she sat there for a long time simply looking at the key in her palm.

Narration ->

you know those journals Fay wrote are the one reason I haven't gone off and hid away from the world. They are probably the only reason I started telling you this story.

* * *

All right another chapter done in record time, on this fic at least. Anyhow, I might have to go and polish this up a bit latter. 

And no I don't suffer from Merinthophobia, I can deal with it I just don't like it. I have Acrophobia.

I think I am using too many rookies but I can't stand the idea of taking any out. And what I find really funny is that none of them are any of my top ten-favrote digimon rookies and I can't even think of changing them to a different rookie.

Oh and before you think of flipping out on me. I am against slavery and used the term as a negative, but frightfully accurate, description of someone who took the bond without wanting it. A willing bond is totally different. I fully plain for the rookies to find a way out or around the bond, maybe even have it work the other way. I don't know at this point.

Reviews welcome. All reviews flames or rantings are wanted.

Later

(after thought inserted next day: I think my mood is starting on a down swing. Sorry if this chapter was freaky but its probably not going to change until my mood gets better, if then.)


	5. C5

I don't own digimon and it is very unlikely that that will change.

Chapter 5. Read it. Warning, slight hints of suicidal thoughts.

* * *

I didn't believe in destiny,-

C4) Friendship -------

narration----

No, I wasn't nearly as calm as I acted. Most the time I was trying not to run away screaming or breakdown in tears. At several points I almost started laughing, the only reason I didn't is because I knew if I started I wouldn't be able to stop.

Brent-

Brent was lying there half asleep, wondering what he had been dreaming. Every time he woke up anymore he knew that he had had a dream, a vivid one, but couldn't remember any of it. It was a little odd because he could usually remember his dreams better than what happened daily.

He wondered if he should get up off the sofa, lately every time he got out of bed he would end up in it again hurting. Fay had waked him briefly to move in on the sofa so the rookies wouldn't bother him when they woke. Right now his pulse was drumming in his ears, skipping a beat every few moments. "WAKE UP!" Brent leapt from the sofa and drew the wooden sword, not sparing time to wonder why he had it with him, and leveled it at Renamon.

Her eyes where wide and she was probably very pale under her fur. "… Not a morning perzon are yose." Brent blinked at Veemon standing at the other end of the sofa and then realized what he was doing.

Sheathing the sword with an ease that surprised him Brent tried to act as if he hadn't done anything weird. "So how are you all doing?" his hands betrayed him as they moved without his consent and belted the sheathed sword at his side.

"They will be fine in a day or so." Brent spun around again, thankfully not drawing the sword this time. Fay stood in her doorway rubbing her eyes, "I thought I told you two to stay in bed and not bother anybody."

She shooed the two rookies away, her cased tail thumping the ground as she walked. "Fay what's going on? I have a feeling that you would be skinning me alive for what I did to them."

Fay froze at his words while Veemon and Renamon slipped from the room. She slowly turned back to Brent, "what do you remember?"

Brent sat down on he sofa again, shifting the sword so it wouldn't trip him. "I was picking fruit and Veemon popped out and scared me. I fell and then the others showed up and tied me to a tree. I lost it and used some weird attack that sucked their energy and when I released what I had done I tried to save them. I'm not sure what I did next but I remember their fractal codes glowing in my hands before passing out."

"You're lying. Your not saying something so spill or I will skin you." Fay sat on the edge of a chair and glared at him. Brent looked into her amethyst eyes and felt all the tension he leave him, tension he didn't even know he had.

"I was talking to a voice in my head when I fell out of the tree. And later the voice told me how I could save them and I tore peaces of my own fractal code out and used it to mend theirs." Brent slowly leaned backwards, relaxing more and more as he looked into her slightly pulsing eyes.

"Who is the voice Brent? You know who the voice is and you want to tell me. If you tell me I can help you, we all can help you." Fay stood up on her chair so as to keep her eyes level with his.

"I, I… the voice is…" Brent sat up again as the tension returned threefold. He thought to himself, 'I wasn't going to tell anyone about the voice.' Sitting up again he clenched his fist, "there isn't any voice."

Fay leaned closer to Brent, their faces only inches apart. "Yes there is Brent. Relax and tell me who the voice is. You want me to know and you want to know. Tell me who the voice is."

Brent clenched his fists until he could feel the stylized eyes pressing into his palms. "I don't know who the voice is. There is no voice and I don't know who it is either." His head began to ache and he could feel his temper starting to stir.

"Brent you _must_ tell me who this voice belongs to. Who is this voice speaking to you? Tell me Brent." Fay pressed her command into her voice.

"NO!" Brent lashed out. His boot rising and catching Fay under the chin and sending her flying back over her chair to crash against the clock sitting on the mantle. Fay and the shattered clock fell to the hearthstone but Brent was already moving.

He burst from the living room and pushed past Alex and the five Rookies and out the front door. He started to run then, past surprised digimon and pushing aside those that got in his way. He didn't know what he was doing or why he was running only that he had to go somewhere and think.

* * *

A while later he opened his eyes and looked up at the sky through leaf heavy branches, he had climbed up to the observation deck running around the crown of the great tree. He had been lying there for a long while now and no one had come to bother him sense he had shouted at a Gargomon.

He was lying on his back add watching the wispy clouds drift by slowly. "Cats eye hypnotism. That's what she was doing." He sat up slowly. "Why was she hypnotizing me? Did she already suspect I was going nuts? Oh and what a great way to show you aren't, talking to yourself at the top of a tree."

"I thought you where talking to me. Oh well I guess I'll just act as if it is normal to ignore a mega so you can talk to yourself." Brent spun up and around drawing the wooden sword, knowing fully well who was there this time.

"What do you want Beezlamon? Please tell me it's to fight, I could use a good fight right now." Brent shifted the grip on the sword hilt as Beezlamon slowly stood from where he sat against the tree trunk, the trunk being little more than a few feet around so far up.

"No I'm afraid I haven't. I came up here to tell you Fay is fine. You didn't have the spirit filling you so your kick wasn't very strong. She will have a headache for a while but it is her own fault for trying to hypnotize you." He stretched his neck and back, wincing as his back cracked and popped. Brent hadn't released until then just how worn Beezlamon looked.

Brent looked at the green sap clinging to the blade of the sword before sliding it away in its sheath. "At the moment I would rather she felt worse than a headache." He was lying and they both knew it, he had grown strangely attached to Fay.

"Brent I was commanded not to tell you anything but I don't have to fallow commands if I don't wish to, its one of the few great things about being a virus digimon. That voice you have been hearing isn't insanity, it's a super powered spirit that lives within the armor of Fate. Those gauntlets made it a part of you the moment your touched them and the crest around your neck is what makes you hear it." Beezlamon let it all spill out in a single breath.

Brent was looking at the wooden platform beneath his feet from Beezlamon's first words. Still staring at the wooden planks he asked, "Is there some way to get rid of it, the voice I mean."

Beezlamon crossed his arms and watched Brent with all three of his eyes. "No. There has never been anyone who has escaped the spirit before they die. The armor might leave you but the spirit will always be with you until you die. And after you die your soul will be drawn into it and become a part of it, giving it all your strengths and power, stealing your memories."

Brent didn't move for a long while, trapped in a mix of fears and thoughts. "Why me? Why did it choose me, me of all people? I can fight sure as rain, even without the gauntlets making me faster and stronger. But why me, I cant kill anybody. I have never even killed an animal on purpose. I cried for days when I dropped my friend's cat and broke its leg. I can't kill anyone."

Beezlamon shifted his stance, thinking that maybe he should have let Alex come talk to Brent. "You don't have to kill anyone. But you do need to save this world, that's why you are here. You chose to come here and save the world so that it and countless others wouldn't suffer the same fate and the corruption spread. You chose to…" Beezlamon grunted as Brent slammed him into the tree trunk.

Brent glared up into Beezlamon's eyes and squeezed his fists where they griped his jacket, tearing the leather and cutting the skin beneath. "Choose? Choose! I didn't choose this. CHOOSE! I didn't want to be here and nearly dieing every other day. I had no Chouse! The only chouse I had was to come here or to come here. Take your chose and leave me ALONE!"

Brent twisted and flung Beezlamon out over the short guardrail, watching with smoldering eyes as the mega fell. Beezlamon smashed through several limbs before he caught one and hung there as leafs fell around him in green swirls. He looked up once and seeing the smoldering hatred in Brent's eyes began climbing down.

Brent waited until Beezlamon was out of sight before slumping down against the rail and start to cry. He just sat there staring out over the digital world and sobbed, finding that no tears would come. "Why me…"

Fay ---

Fay sat up, only to fall back as her head began to spin. She opened her eyes and squinted at ceiling. "Somebody tell me I'm still asleep." She had expected Alex or somebody sitting nearby but when nobody answered her she made herself sit up.

"Ohhh, hell. What did Brent hit me with?" she griped her head between her paws as it was trying to spin on her neck.

"He kicked you." Fay brought her head up only to moan as the room wobbled and a jolt of pain shot along her forehead.

Palmon came into the room and took a cloth from a basin, ringing it out before pushing Fay back and placing it over her eyes. "You shouldn't have tried that, he is stubborn. Even Veemon is easier to deal with. He isn't going to admit anything to himself, not even who he talks to under his breath."

Fay pushed herself up again, ignoring the pain in her head. "You knew what I was doing?"

Palmon tapped the side of her head, "I don't really have a chouse." She pushed Fay back down again and replaced the cloth. "He is afraid. And that isn't something he is used to so he dose what he always dose, strike out and act tough."

Fay waited for Palmon to say something else but she remained silent so long that Fay felt the need to break the growing silence. "How are you dealing with the whole 'bond' thing? I cant imaging what its like and I don't think I would want to."

Fay felt Palmon hop up onto the bed beside her. "It's strange… I'm not sure how to explain it but it's like having a thought tickling the back of your mind. Sometimes I can feel a strong emotion, like right now he is long past mad, but the rest of the time he is just this little ball of sensation that I could forget if I tried to."

Fay shifted a little, trying to get comfortable. "Have any clear thoughts come through? I mean like what he is thinking."

Palmon re-dampened the cloth and dabbed at the lump forming on Fay's head. "Only little pictures that I don't understand. Some woman, forest trails." Fay felt a tremble in the bed as Palmon gave a shudder. "And there are images of digimon as they are torn apart by a pair of gauntlets."

Fay sat up, forgetting for a moment the pain in her head to wrap her arms around Palmon. "Its ok Palmon. Brent wouldn't do that to anyone, he cant stand to see someone die. He would kill himself if he ever did."

Palmon griped Fay back as tears started from her eyes. "But it isn't Brent." she buried her head in Fay's fur, muffling her words slightly. "It was Fate. He wants to kill. I'm scared of him, I don't wanna die."

"Hush. It ok Brent would never let Fate do that and neither will anyone else." Fay held Palmon and let her cry into her fur. Even if she meant the words she couldn't help but wonder if Brent would be able to stop Fate if it wanted to kill anyone.

After a while Palmon fell asleep and Fay gently tucked her under the covers. After making sure she was asleep Fay crept out of the room and closed the door gently. She was planning to check on the other rookies as well, and hope they were handling it to some degree.

She stepped into the clinic and found total chaos. Alex was wrapped so thickly in bandages that he looked like a Mummymon. And everywhere the rookies where jumping around tossing water balloons at each other. Fay took a step forward to deal with this when a water balloon struck her, drenching her. She blinked the water from her eyes and snatched up the latex glove that had been the water balloon. "STOP THIS AT ONCE!"

Every eye turned toward Fay and a collective gulp was heard. They had gotten a cat digimon wet, and now had no way of escape. Almost as in answer to their silent prayers the door opened and Beezlamon stepped in. the four rookies shot out the open door like a horse from the starting gate.

Beezlamon thought of fallowing them but decided to face the enraged cat, after all it was better than facing Brent. "So you woke up before noon. I guess I owe Alex twenty bucks. Where is Alex anyhow?"

Alex fell over with a great crash as he tried taking a step. Fay stepped over and slashed the bandages with her claws, enjoying the yelps of pain as her claws pricked over skin. "Sorry Alex. I just haven't had time to do my nails lately."

Alex stood and started brushing tattered bandages from his body, ignoring both Fay and the slight scratches she had given him. He turned to Beezlamon, "Brent?"

Beezlamon sat down on a cot, only to stand again because it was wet. "He is sitting up at the top of that giant tree in the middle of town. I think we should leave today, tomorrow at the latest."

Alex adjusted his helmet, "what are you not saying brother?"

Beezlamon started to sit down again but remembered the cot was wet. "He didn't choose to come here. He says he didn't have any chouse at all. He never wanted to come here, he didn't want to save the world."

Beezlamon stood in the silence for a while as they tried to understand what he had told them. Finally he slumped down on the cot, not caring about it being wet, "something went wrong. Every legend and history I have ever seen or heard said that only willing humans could enter the digital world. If Brent is here without wanting to it might not have been just Fate calling him."

Fay sat down with a thump, a part of her mind noticing that her tail no longer hurt her. She stared at her feet, not seeing them as she tried to understand this, "the digital world kidnapped Brent? Just so it would have a hero?"

"I'm afraid it may be worse than that Fay." She looked up at Alex and saw the glint of something on his cheek before he wiped it away. "It could mean that Brent was the best that that other world had to offer. If he were the only chouse he wouldn't be given a chouse. He is the digital worlds only hope and we are his only help. If he fails there won't be another chance. Or maybe… I can't say it is too horrible a thought to utter."

Before Fay could ask what her meant Veemon came charging back into the room, bombarding Beezlamon with water balloons. Beezlamon laughed as he turned and ran after Veemon, laughing and acting as if he had not a care in the world. Fay found herself at the door, watching as Beezlamon was covered over in a flood of rookies. Every rookie in town, and a few adults, had been pulled into the water battle.

Fay found the sight sickly sweet as she thought of Brent sitting up at the top of the great tree contemplating the fate that Fate had forced on him. From the back of her memory came his words, 'I don't believe in fate.'

She looked up, trying to see Brent but only seeing braches and leaves suturing in the wind. She whispered to herself, "I'm sorry Brent but Fate believes in you." She turned and went back inside, not wanting any more happiness right now.

Brent ---

Brent gave a start; he hadn't realized that he had fallen asleep until laughter from below woke him. He looked down and saw glimpses of digimon running around far below, looking like small shapes from so far up. He stayed there watching them and trying not to think.

_"So Beezlamon told you. I shouldn't be surprised really, viruses take it as a matter of principal to fallow orders by their own perceptions. So are you ready to admit you are a warrior?" _Brent let his head thump against the rail, and then again, and again.

"Go away. I don't want to talk to you." he hit his head against the rail again, trying to strike the voice from his mind.

The wooden rail sudden split as Brent struck it harder than he meant, _"stubbornness is a quality I look for in a host but not hard-headedness. Think it through man. I know you didn't chouse this but there wasn't anyone else I could use. That other world just isn't what it once was, fighters of any quality are often cowards after personal gain and most those that are not only want to kill and destroy." _

Brent heard the sigh as it echoes around his mind. _"You are the best fighter I could find. You don't flinch at pain or run from it, you embrace it as few warriors I have inhabited have. You seek out stronger opponents and challenge them until you are victorious. You fight with whatever is at hand and take any chance to secede. And above all you have morals, real morals. You don't like to fight anyone unwilling to and you fallow the rules until someone else breaks them. You think if ways to help people even at your own cost."_

The voice paused for a long time and Brent only knew it was there because of the stuffed felling in his head. _"You are a lost bred. I can't remember more than a few men to match you in all those regards. I need you to help save this world. Brent, help me save my home."_

Brent stood and started pacing back and forth between the broken rail and the tree trunk. "No", he said it so silently that it didn't leave his mouth. He felt the voice readying itself for another pleading but silenced it with his own, "please. Leave me be. I just want to go home… I want to go home and be with my family."

The voice heard every soft-spoken word and would have shaken its head if it had one to shake. _"I cant Brent. Until the world is safe again you are trapped here. You need to help me so I can help you. Even back in your world I will be with you until you die."_

Brent stopped pacing, standing there looking down past the broken rail and many braches to the ground far below. "Death, The one thing I can't fight, the one thing I can't embrace because of fear. Death is my only freedom, freedom from Fate."

Brent felt Fate leave his mind, he had finally admitted that Fate had existed but he would never admit that fate controlled all. He began pacing again, back and forth as he ran over his thoughts and laughter was brought to him on the wind from far below.

Narration ---

This is where my journey actually began. Everything leading up to this was little more than adapting to my new life in the digital world. Tomorrow I will tell more of the story but I must rest now. Go my little friend we will talk more later…

* * *

Sorry for the shortness but I had a bit of trouble with this chapter, well more than I normally do. I find myself wondering whom the Narrator is talking to? I guess my mind will tell me sooner or later.

"Death, The one thing I can't fight, the one thing I can't embrace because of fear. Death is my only freedom, freedom from Fate." I love that line. Dose anybody know where it is from? I bet you don't.

Review. Please just give me something.


	6. C6

I don't own digimon and it is very unlikely that that will change.

Chapter 6. After this I'm going back to do some rewrites.

* * *

I didn't believe in destiny,-

C6) -------

narration----

My first day out on the road wasn't the best. I was still in a very foul mood and nothing was really helping me get over it.

Brent---

Brent frowned at the clouds in the sky, the weather matching his mood. _"Now this is closer to training."_ Brent ignored fates voice and leaned into the wagon harder, pushing it out of the rut stopping it wheels. Alex had gotten an old covered wagon and Fay and the five rookies had spent most of the night loading it, mostly with things that wouldn't be needed.

Brent saw Fay look at him again; she had been watching him since the other day when she had tried to hypnotize him. Fay and the others where up in the cart but Brent refused to ride with them. "Why don't you come up here already." Brent cast a glare at Palmon where she sat in the back of the wagon.

"I'm fine." Brent had no trouble keeping up with the pair of old mules pulling the cart. The old beasts of burden were almost bone thin and looked ready to fall over at the first strong gust of wind.

"Are you sure? You have been walking since we left this morning." Palmon held out a canteen that Brent took only long enough for a sip before handing it back.

Brent scowled at the sky again with its churning gray clouds. "I'm fine. I hike back home and that's fallowing game trails. Not a nice dirt road like this." Brent wasn't sure why Palmon had taken to talking to him, or why he talked back. The other rookies made a point of avoiding him as much as possible while he was like this.

The wagon gave another lurch as its wheels dropped into another rut and back out. Palmon winced as her seat dropped from under her and came back up to hit her. "Yes it is a very nice road." Alex and Beezlemon had mapped out the route very carefully before the wagon had left and the wagon had already covered a good distance despite the slow moving mules and bad roads.

"Has Fay mentioned where Violet, Alex and Beezlemon went?" shortly after setting out Alex had climbed on the back of Beezlemons bike and they both raced off down the road with Violet flying after, leaving everyone choking on their dust.

Palmon glanced over at where Fay sat holding the reins, seeing Fay twist her head back towards the road. "Not yet. You really shouldn't be so hard on her you know. She was trying to help." Brent saw Palmon wince and thought that maybe his scowl was a bit much.

He didn't care at the moment, "that is just what I need another person messing around in my head." He kicked at the road and looked at the sky again. "I wish it would just rain already. Then we could make camp and I could go think under a tree or something."

"Well there are a lot of trees to chose but if it rains we will end up going even slower. And I don't think Fay would stop just because of rain." Palmon shoved Veemon away as he rolled towards her in his sleep. "How does he sleep with all these bumps?"

Brent didn't answer as he increased his pace a little, putting the canvas between him and everyone in the wagon. _"Why exactly are you so grumpy. I thought it would be a relief to know you aren't insane."_

Brent curled his fists, somehow feeling the material of the elbow length gloves even through the mystical gauntlets. "Its not much better knowing I got the embodiment of countless dead guys trapped in my mind." Brent flexed his fists, feeling the power in them. Power he didn't want at the moment and would give away if the voice would leave with it.

"You shouldn't talk to Fate that way." Brent hadn't heard Renamon walking up behind him. "He is almost a god after all." Renamon kept pace with him and the wagon easily and often ran off into the wood giggling as she saw flowers or small animals.

Brent looked down at her, unable to decide weather she was shorter than the one from the show or weather the show was off scale. He shook his thoughts away as he saw a look of confusion on her face, "it doesn't sound like much of a god if it has to possess people to do its work." Brent saw her face tense for a moment, looking more like the Renamon he knew before she saw something off in the woods and leapt after it laughing.

Brent picked up his pace again, moving up beside the drivers bench. "Fay how exactly did you get their parents to let them go with us?" Brent saw her tense and heard a sudden stop of movement in the back of the wagon. "Don't tell me you let them run off without a word."

Fay clicked the reins and kept looking forward, refusing to meet the glare Brent was giving her. "We left notes." Brent swung his glare up at Wormmon, he was clinging easily to the inside roof of the canvas. "We couldn't tell them we where coming or they wouldn't let us go. They would ground us for years just for asking."

Brent griped the wagon edge and pulled himself up, dropping down on the seat beside Fay. "So your telling me we left a bunch of upset digimon behind us who are in all likelihood going to run us down and drag you all back."

Brent cast a glance into the back where Biomon, Veemon and Palmon where sitting on boxes or bundles and laying in the center of the floor was the still comatose man Brent had almost killed. Wormmon dropped down onto Brent's shoulder, almost getting brushed off before Brent stopped the motion. "We told them we where going up north looking for someplace more exciting. By the time they discover we didn't go north we will be to far away."

Brent picked Wormmon off his shoulder and held him before his face, looking down into his eyes and trying not to notice the bandages still covering his face. "Did it occur to you that they might not believe you went north? Did you leave a false trail going north? Will they find campsites along the road that are fresh enough to have been you?"

Brent sat Wormmon down on the seat a glared at the road stretching away in front of them. "Alex and Beezlemon went to put down a false trail and Violet went to help. They are going to be gone for a day or so but when they get back we shouldn't have to worry about being fallowed by their parents." Brent didn't answer Fay, he simply jumped down of the wagon again and increased his pace until he was way out ahead of the wagon.

_"Just a bit hostile right now aren't you."_ Brent wished for a moment that Fate had its own body just so he could slug it. _"Honestly you admitted I am here, why cant you admit you're a warrior."_

Brent tried relaxing his hands but they simply kept curling into fists. "I am a fighter and I wont do anything more than that." Brent tried not to give into the thought of punching something.

_"I had been hoping that you would start recognizing your training now that you admit I'm real but your subconscious is still blocking everything away. You are going to die horribly if you don't work with me and then ill be stuck on a statue again and ill spend the next hundred years or so talking to your sprit." _Brent grabbed a small stone from the road and hurled it at a tree along the road.

The stone struck the tree and bit in deep, sending broken bark and wood flying as it bored right out the other side. Brent looked at the hole in the tree for a few moments before closing his jaw and continuing to walk. _"If you would listen to me you could control my powers rather than letting instinct and emotions control them."_

"BRENT! LOOK OUT!" Brent spun around at Fay's shout only to see nothing except the wagon. Before he could turn back around something struck the back of his head and sent him into blackness.

Fay ---

Fay shifted on the hard bench again, glad that her tail was finally out of its cast. She looked up the road at Brent, seeing him toss a stone that tore through a tree and burst from the other side. He was in a foul mood and she didn't think she could do anything to get him out of it.

It had been more than stupid to try hypnotism on him, all it did was put him in a bad mood and he now spoke to Fate a little louder. He still didn't know what he had done to the rookies, and whatever it was that Fate had been teaching him.

She winced as another bump jolted her from her thoughts, she looked back and saw that that Renamon had finally climbed on the wagon and was passing around berries she had found. She looked forward again and thought she saw something farther down the road. She squinted and saw the trees along the road shift slightly as Brent passed them but put it off to her imagination.

She kept watching for a moment longer and saw a pair of deep red eyes before they vanished again. "BRENT! LOOK OUT!" her call only made him turn around and let the Woodmon next to the road swing a large branch like arm into the back of his head.

Fay only had time to wince at the sight of red on the branch as Brent went down. Before she could even leap of the wagon to help him more Woodmon, more than she had ever known lived in the world, rushed the wagon. She leapt over the reaching limbs only to be stuck between two more in a vise like grasping.

She lashed about with her claws and heard the rookies as they tried fighting of the plant digimon. Her claws barley marked the thick bark like skin and before she could try prying the digimon's grasp open she felt something strike the back of her head in the world turned black.

* * *

Fay heard a loud ringing and tried to sit up only to find she couldn't move anything. She opened her eyes and tried shouting but something was tied over her eyes and mouth. She tried twisting free but a rough voice shouted in her ear, "you no move. You be good food for big Treemon. You no move, no move."

Fay's heart launched into a racing pace, these where Wild Ones and cannibals at that. She twisted her ears around trying to hear if anyone else was taken, and hoping the rookies had gotten away.

She could hear some sobbing nearby and someone thrashing against bonds a bit behind her. There was a big creak and a thump that sent Fay up only to drop back and strike had wood. They were still in the wagon but this wasn't like any road Fay heard of, it was more like they had just lifted the wagon and was carrying it.

Sure enough there was a shout and Fay found herself falling and rolling of the end of the wagon. She landed and immediately tried getting free, only for a large weight to hit her back. The ringing came back for a moment but when it cleared she felt something cutting her bonds.

"Not now wait for my signal." She didn't recognize the voice but decided it would probably be best to listen to it. She could have broke free then and there but she didn't want anyone left behind and this person, whoever it was, sounded as if they had a plain.

The weight was lifted off her and then strong wooden hands griped her and tossed her into the wagon. Another person hit her and she could feel feathers tickling her fur, Biomon was here and the foot pressed against her side could only be Renamon's. She shifted around, careful so she didn't break her weakened bonds, trying to use her body to find who had been captured.

She couldn't find Palmon or Veemon but she found Wormmon, he wasn't moving and the Woodmon hadn't bothered to tie him up. She couldn't do anything for the moment so she moved on, only to find Brent. Brent was still out but they had bound him anyhow, she used her tail to check his injuries.

The back of his head had two huge lumps forming and she felt something sticky and her tail trailed across his face. She felt a hand hit her side, almost as if moved by the movements of the wagon. She froze not able to understand who this was; Brent was the only one here with five fingered hands and they where in the gauntlets. Had the others come back and had been captured as well.

The fingers flicked against her side, counting down from five. She felt something slide up against her side and she flicked her tail around it and pulled it next to her. The last finger drummed against her side and she flexed her muscles, feeling the cloth strips dig in before tearing.

She was on her feet and pulling her blindfold away expecting to see Beelzemon or Alex as they fought against hopeless numbers. What she saw was the bearded man that had been comatose for days fighting with his sword while the sheath still hung from Brent's belt.

She leapt aside as a large wooden limb smashed down where she had been standing. The canvas had been torn from the wagon and all around them were Woodmon. The Woodmon where swinging their heavy fists but the man dodged around every swing and lashed out with thrusts and sweeps that sent heavy limbs flying from their owners.

Fay dodged another clumsy strike and whipped out with her tail, forcing the muscles to hold tightly to what she had grabbed. The thing she had grabbed with her tail was a sharp little belt knife, the knife struck deep but pulled free in a spray of green sap like blood. Fay rolled back as two heavy fists struck the wagon floor and shattered it where they hit. Fay felt her foot hit something and glanced back to see a battered Biomon struggling to get free of her bonds.

Fay slashed with her claws, removing the canvas from Biomon and Renamon beside her. Biomon leapt into the air and immediately started firing her spiral twister into the Woodmon around the wagon. Renamon sat up groggily and fell back again as the wagon gave a lurch.

The four Woodmon actually carrying the wagon hadn't stopped while the fight was still going. The lurch was from the man striking one of the wagon bearers down; the fallen Woodmon was replaced as the first burst into fractal code. Several Woodmon swallowed the code before attacking stronger than before.

Every Woodmon who fell had his code devoured by his fellows, the Woodmons ranks where thinning but at the same time those remaining Woodmon grew much stronger. Fay looked around for Wormmon and saw him clinging to Brent's chest and firing his attack at any Woodmon who reached for them.

Fay saw how bad everyone was and could tell that this fight was going poorly. Brent wouldn't be fighting for a while and the Rookies wouldn't last much longer, and while the man was fighting strong at the moment he would soon tire from his lack of suitable food and tired muscles.

Fay jumped onto the head of a Woodmon, scattering the green braches they used to blend in with the trees, and leapt to the next as a pair of fists descended. She kept moving, lashing out with her claws and the knife griped in her tail, staying put only long enough for a Woodmon to swing at her and hit the Woodmon she had been on instead.

"Pit Pelter!" Fay didn't no what had hit her but the next thing she knew a pair of Woodmon was holding her. In front of her was a towering tree with green leaves and dark red berries. The tree stood alone in the midst of a new clearing where all the other trees had been recently torn free and tossed aside.

Fay heard struggling and twisted around, the old man was held down by five Woodmon, his sword stuck in the ground nearby. Fay hoped the rookies had gotten away but that hope faded as more Woodmon carried their limp forms forward and dropped them in front of the cherry tree and then Brent beside them.

There was a rustling and Fay looked up at the tree, expecting the leader of the Woodmon or some great horrible creature. What she saw instead was a pair of large dark eyes blinking down at her, the tree was a Cherrymon.

A large arm reached out and picked up Renamon, bringing her closer to a large mouth full of jagged rotten teeth. "Dragon Wheel!" a long serpentine blast of blue flames with a head of a dragon crashed into Cherrymon's arm. Renamon fell only to land on her mothers back.

Jean kicked out at the Woodmon rushing her, send them flying into other Woodmon before she leapt out of sight behind one of the Woodmon that where still holding her. "Exx-Vee Laser!" the blast of power sent Fay tumbling across the ground as the Woodmon that had been holding her practically Exploded into digi-code.

Fay found her feet and jumped towards the man who was still held by Woodmon. She slid to a stop beside the sword and pulled it free of the ground before charging again, the sword nearly twice as tall as her leading the charge.

The sword sank easily into the back of the first Woodmon. It snarled as it twisted around, sending Fay spinning around as she griped the sword hilt. The man saw her and the sword and snatched Fay by the back of the neck with his now free hand. Fay screeched as the man pulled on her, also pulling the sword free as the Woodmon collapsed.

With a motion she couldn't see Fay was suddenly on the man's shoulder and he was holding the sword. With three slices the Woodmon stumbled away missing limbs, and the man charged into the fray around Vincent.

Fay leapt off the man's shoulder and attacked the closest Woodmon, using more strength than she knew she had her claws tore through bark and wooden flesh. She lost track of the battle from there, remembering only a blur of flashing digi-code and sprays of green blood.

Almost as if blinking she was suddenly standing beside a very battered Vincent and gasping for air. All around her she couldn't see any Woodmon, only the occasional spatter of green blood. She looked around and saw Jean standing beside the rookies, including Palmon and Veemon. Palmon was untying a still unconscious Brent while Veemon was helping Biomon stand.

Fay took a step towards them when there was an awful groaning roar. The Cherrymon had finally beat the fire from its branches and now glared at them all with hatred and trembling rage. It gave another roar like trees bending before the fury of a tornado and stretched its charred and bare limbs into the air.

Clumps of leaves sprung from the blackened branches and cherries sprouted instantly. "Pit Pelter!" Fay leapt backwards, tying to avoid the hundreds of small projectiles as they flew outward from the enraged ultimate. She found herself slumped against a tree trunk on the edge of the clearing and bruises already forming all over her body.

"What hit me this time?" she looked over and saw Brent lying on the ground nearby, looking worse than ever but awake. She managed to pull herself up to her feet; only to slump down again as her energy was gone and the adrenalin had finally worn off.

"Infernal Charge!" Fay looked up and saw something she couldn't believe. The man was standing on Jean's back with his sword held out before him as they ran towards the enraged Cherrymon. Flames rose up around Jean from her many tails and paws, surrounding the man without harming him and spiraling around the wooden sword.

The sword burst into flames and the man screamed the attack again as his sword became a white-hot brand of flame that pierced into the heart of the wild digimon. With a towering explosion of light the Cherrymon exploded into digi-code as Jean leapt away and the man whipped out a strange pendant that the digi-code flowed into.

As the last of the digimon's code and darkened form disappeared the man fell from Jean's back while Jean managed a few steps before collapsing. Fay hoped they where ok but couldn't move to check. She blinked at the glow burnt into her eyes by the light a few moments ago before closing her eyes and falling asleep.

Narration ---

My first day on the road and I spend most of it unconscious while a grand battle rages around me. Not to mention I awoke with a killer migraine. No I'm done telling the story for today, you will just have to go entertain yourself for a while.

* * *

I just know I'm going to get a lot of questions about this chapter so bring them on.

Oh and I'm thinking of changing Jean's name. Jean just doesn't fit a Kyubimon that well.

Later


	7. C7

I don't own digimon and it is very unlikely that that will change.

Chapter 7. The rewrites got postponed until later. I changed Jean's name in this one her name is now Shula. Not the best name but it fits, for now.

* * *

I didn't believe in destiny,-

C7) -------

narration----

What's that? What happened in the clearing? I told you we had been totally beaten, even if we survived. A most humbling sensation, losing, I never did get used to it. Never got used to helplessness either.

Brent ---

"Gently Brent." Fay's scolding wasn't helping the ringing in his ears. He had been the first to rise from the ground after the defeat of the wild one, only shortly before Fay could finally move. His head felt ready to split in half and the blurry shapes around him only made it worse.

Sometime while he was out cold his glasses had gotten lost and now all he could see was hazy blobs of color. Fay had recovered quickly enough and had lead him around looking for the others.

They had found Vincent, lying protectively over the rookies and in better shape than Fay expected. The rookies where a good as good be expected but so tired that they would not be doing anything for a while. Then he and Fay worked over the burnt ground to where Shula and the man had collapsed. They would have come to them first but the heat from the attack was slow to disperse. Even know Brent could feel the ground under his knees as if it was a hot frying pan.

"Brent I said gently." Fay pulled his armored hands away from the man's arm where he had been feeling for breaks.

"I'm sorry but I can't see what I'm doing." Brent felt Fay grip his head and saw two purple blots close before his eyes. He heard her sigh in exasperation and let his head go. He leaned back as he heard her check the man himself, "how is the Kyubimon doing? That attack had to have taken a lot from her."

Brent didn't like being blind like this but he couldn't even look for his glasses without help. He didn't like being helpless and without his glasses that was what he was. Fay muttered a curse as the man moaned in pain, she hadn't heard him, "he has a broken rib but I can't find anything else. I wonder why he fought beside us?"

Brent felt her tail wrap around his hand and pull him to his feet. He felt a blush spread across his face, as this was very embarrassing. "Here. We need to more Shula over under the trees. She might use fire attacks but this heat still isn't good for her." Brent felt her guide his hands down to soft warm fur. "You are going to have to do most the lifting and she is going to be heavy. Can you get her front legs around your neck?"

Brent crept his hand along fur-covered muscles and down the hard shoulders until his gloved and gauntleted hands felt heat. He pulled his hand away as he smelled the material of the gloves start to burn, he had found her paws with its white fur that twisted and flowed like flame and was hot enough to burn him if he wasn't careful. "Yeah I can but I can't see to make sure I don't get burnt or pull on her wrong and hurt her."

"Don't worry about hurting her, she is only exhausted and can take a little pulling. Just be careful about the fire." He heard something being dragged beside him and turned his head, seeing a vast brown/ black background that was the burnt ground and a white and purple blotch that might have been Fay. "I need to drag him out so you will have to move her."

Brent griped a well toned shoulder and pulled up, leaning down and grunting as he slowly maneuvered the unconscious digimon onto his shoulders. His face twisted for a moment as he felt a fiery foot brush his neck and almost igniting his hair. Then as her weight sealed on his shoulders her gritted his teeth and forced himself to take a step.

He pulled forward, her body dragging out behind him and pulling him back even as her weight pushed him down. "Can you do this Brent?" Brent only nodded at the blotch he thought was Fay, as he pulled forward another step. Fay went ahead of him, her strength much greater than her size would expect. The white blotch disappeared into the green and brown ahead, off to where they had already moved the others.

His feet slowed as his back began to protest and his jaw popped from clenching it. He continued on towards the tree line and the sound of a quickly disappearing Fay. She was gone when he reached the trees, narrowly avoiding one that loomed up before his eyes. He stopped for a moment before continuing forward, staying as strait in his path as possible.

For a while he continued on, knowing that Fay and the others had to be in front of him. After a while when he didn't come along them or the stream that ran by where they had camped he began to get concerned. After a few more struggled steps he stopped and lowered Shula to the ground. He sagged against the tree and cupped his hands over his mouth, "FAY! Fay! Where are you!" he slid down the tree clutching his head as his shouting made the pain and ringing double.

Brent struggled to hold back the pain as it drummed against his mind, driving deeper into him and sending all other thoughts away. He closed his eyes and leaned forward and then laying down on his face as the pain begin to drum like his heart.

* * *

He only closed his eyes for a moment before suddenly he was tossed onto his back, sending a new set of ringing around his head and pain that lanced into him from stiff muscles and joints.

A heavy paw thumped down on his chest, forcing out his air and the heat of it beginning to melt the decal on his shirt. "Where is my daughter?" he managed to force his sleep crusted eyes open to look up above him and see only dark shadows and a slightly brighter one above him. The foot pressed harder, "what did you do with my daughter?"

"Daughter? I, I… who is your daughter?" Brent's only thought was to wish that someone would answer that phone. He brought a hand up and griped the foot on his chest and pushed it up, not understanding why his hand started to grow warm in his gauntlets or why the lighter shadow above him growled in agitation.

Brent felt the foot press back against his hand and wondered why it would do that and gave it a shove. The lighter shadow fell away with a grunt of pain before their was a flare of blue light and Brent felt his clothes burning as something was shouted. He swatted at the flames, not seeing the pulse of darkness as they were snuffed instantly.

He pulled himself slowly up, his head rolling around slightly and feeling ready to float up and away. "Where are my glasses?" he said it to himself and dropped to his knees to look for them as something roared and shot past where his head had been. He turned his head and watched blearily as the lighter shadow landed and spun to face him again. "Have you seen my glasses?" a thought tickled at the back of Brent's mind but it slid away as the shadow hit him with a large paw.

"Tell me where my daughter is!" Brent got up to his feet again and looked around at the darkness. Up overhead there came a pink light that started to shine down between darker patches. "MY Daughter!" a large yellow shape launched at him from the darkness, the pink light from above turning it into shooting mango colored projectile.

Brent raised a hand and placed it palm outward, "halt." He spoke so simply that he didn't know he had spoken but the result was far from simple. The battered glove covering his gauntlets burst away like a bursting balloon as a misty white light spread out from his hand. The very air around them shuddered and rippled as the light surrounded him and cast everything in its painfully brilliant glow.

Shula skidded to a stop before him as the light entered her mind, clearing it of its fear and confusion. The light also entered Brent's mind, allowing him to see what had happened to him as well as what was around him. She blinked and stumbled as Brent walked forward, no she wasn't stumbling she was kneeling. He walked forward, his body moving easily and calmly despite the damage it had suffered. He dropped to his knees before her and raised her head to look in her eyes.

She pulled her head down again, "I am not worthy great Knight. Do to me what you shall." She pressed herself lower but Brent held her where she was and made her look at him.

He could feel everything around him, the stir of wind in the branches overhead, the light of the three moons warming his skin and heart, and the fear she had of him. "Help me." It was strange to say those words for Brent, he rarely asked for help and then only his closest friends.

Shula she snapped her head up in surprise and looked him in the eyes before she stopped herself and tried looking away again. Brent could feel the spell around him start to fade and knew that his head injury would return when it did, leaving him helpless and confused. "Shula, you must help me get to Fay. My skull is shattered and this spell will fade leaving me blind and unable to think clearly. Help me."

The light was little more than a glow on his skin and he could feel reason slipping away as pain drummed at his mind again. She climbed to her feet as Brent swayed and started to fall forward, she caught his arm in her teeth and grimaced as her eyes saw the matted bloody lump on the side of his head.

Brent wondered where he was, as he was swung around with jostling and noise until he was draped over something and his cheek was pressed against something warm. He rubbed his face against it and closed his eyes, hearing a string of harsh words as everything started to rise up in down in a steady rhythm. He heard as if from a great distance, _"don't you dare die you stupid fool. Not yet."_

Fay ---

Fay placed the man down by the stream next to Vincent, she tried prying the charred hilt of his sword from his hand but his grip wouldn't loosen. The blade was gone, burnt away in the attack that had destroyed the Cherrymon.

Fay glanced that the rookies, five young digimon forced into something far bound them. The grimaced as her burses forced her to sit carefully beside the man. She watched him and wondered again why he had suddenly awoke and fought for them, it made no sense.

"I hope Alex and the others get back soon." When there wasn't an answer she looked over at the smashed trail that the Woodmon had beaten down. "Brent?" she got to her feet again and walked to where she could see back along towards the clearing. She saw no sign of Brent or Shula and took a step to go look when she remembered the other behind her. She couldn't leave them alone but she had to find Brent, he hadn't let her check him over and she was still concerned about his head.

She stood there for a long moment before turning back, something cracking under her foot. She reached down and picked up Brent's glasses, the one lenses with a crack along the edge and the frame twisted. She looked back again and whispered, "please be ok."

* * *

A few hours later the sun had sank down out of sight and the pink seraphimoon had rose up and covered everything with its pink glow. She hated this time of year, the blue oaphonimoon was dark and the small golden kerapymoon would only just come over the horizon before dawn and sink faster than the sun could rise.

She tossed another branch on the fire she had made and looked at where everyone laid still. She couldn't leave to look for Brent until one of them woke but waiting here while he was out there lost and possibly hurt was grating on her nerves. She shouldn't have gone ahead of him but she didn't realize how bad his eyes actually are. She picked up his glasses and looked at the thick lenses before holding them up before her eyes and seeing everything become little more than colored blobs.

She lowered them and saw that someone had sat up, the man. She jumped to her feet but wasn't sure what to do, he had tried to kill her and everyone and just now had saved their lives. She watched as he examined the hilt of his burnt sword, he hadn't noticed her watching him yet. He stood and paced towards a tree that was nearby, he place his palm against it but after a moment moved to the next. She watched as he placed his palm on each tree until he stopped beside a short scraggly tree that was stunted between two towering oaks.

He placed the hilt against the trunk of the tree and said something that slid through the air sent a tremor into her bones but never reached her ears. The tree started to grow, sprouting branches and leaves while its twisted trunk straitened and pushed the trees beside it away.

She watched in awe as the tree towered up above her, its spreading roots churning the soil into slow moving waves. The tree glowed brightly and the man stopped speaking, with a sharp yank he drew the hilt away from the truck. A new blade was there gleaming and sharp, the glow of fresh digicode spreading over the hilt and removing what damage it had suffered.

He patted the tree and then with a sharp slash drew the new blade across his arm, she gasped and ran towards him. She was halted as she watched the wound close it and the man pushed the bloodied sword back into the opening it had been drawn from. The tree glowed a bright green for a moment before dozens of sharp buds burst from its trunk. They grew quickly and started to blossom into the loveliest red flowers she had ever seen.

As the last petals open her eyes grew wide as she saw sword hilts like the one in the man's hand. Every petal twisted as it grew and became some part of armor, the tree had grown more armor like that the man had worn. The man drew his sword from the tree slowly and the cut in the truck healed slowly, leaving a leaf shaped scar in both wood and bark.

The man turned and saw Fay watching him; he placed his feet wide and griped the freshly grown sword in both hands. Fay stepped back in fear, she couldn't fight him alone and she could flee and leave the others here at his merci. Suddenly the man sagged as if defeated without a single stroke or even a word.

He walked forward calmly and Fay waited, not knowing what else she could do. The man stopped before her and raised his sword up above his head and Fay thought he would pin her to the ground with it. The tip touched his chest and tilted forward, pressing the tunic shirt against his flesh and a bead for red stained it.

Fay didn't understand what he was doing, 'he wouldn't kill himself would he?' the man griped the hilt hard and Fay jumped up, pulling the sword tip away as he pulled it inward. The sword scraped along the man's side and blood begin to run from the wound. "What are you doing? Why would you want to kill yourself?"

The man ignored the blood running down his side and tried to pull the sword from Fay's hands. She let go before it cut her but slapped it with her claws, watching it spin away and land against the wagon wheel. The man dropped to his knees and held his hands out before him. "I have done much harm. It was by my hands that countless innocents died, they died in flames or on my blade. Poisson had coated my sword because of the evil I had committed. I disserve life less than those who commanded that I do it."

Fay tried to reach for his wound but he grasped her hands in his. His eyes burned with self-loathing and disgust, "I will not fight anymore. My blade will not touch another's blood. If you will not let my life end here at my own thrust than I will sit here and wither as the rot in my soul consumes me."

He released her and stood moving back to the sword tree, he settled against it and closed his eyes. Fay came forward to try and help him but a branch of the tree bent down and blocked her path. She tried moving around but the branch moved to block, the hilt of a sword twitching at her threateningly.

Fay moved back and watched helplessly as his blood pooled under him. Her life as a healer shouted at her to stop him but she couldn't, not just because the tree but because of his piercing eyes that fallowed her. "What is your name?" she couldn't let him die without knowing his name.

The man closed his eyes and leaned back against the tree. "My name was once a proud name of honor and truth but now it is nothing but a husk. I will not be remembered by such a great name, let you know me as Black Wood the Rotten. This tree is my only legacy, men and women will come and find it one day and take up the same weapons I used but hopefully with more wisdom than I had." The man didn't move and Fay thought he had died but his eyes opened again and looked at her, "warn Brent Miller that he can't let the black bands touch him. Not even the welders of the Spirit armors could resist them, he stands no chance." Black didn't know how much of a warning that was because he had never seen Brent's gauntlets.

The man leaned back again and his chest stilled so Fay went forward to move him to where she could bury him. The tree swung a branch at her before the bark split with a crack andBlack was drawn inside. The wood closed around him without a mark but a moment later a new bud formed where he had been and it opened slowly.

In the center of the bud was an open hand that held a silver pendant with a drawn seed in its center. On a silky brown petal above the hand was wrote, 'his hand had done wrong but his heart was always healthy and good. He clamed the name Black Wood the Rotten but the forest of his spirit have deemed he be called Hard Heart the Sorrowed.'

Fay smiled at the thought of his spirit resting within these woods. She walked over and picked up his sword, she ran her claws along the gently carved leaves that wound around the blade. She saw no sign of the poisons sap that had covered the blade before. She climbed up into the wagon and sat the sword next to the box containing the rest of Heart's armor.

She stepped down from the wagon just as Shula burst from the woods panting hard. She saw Fay and covered the ground between then in almost an instant. Fay saw Brent's limp form over her back and lepta up, griping him and lifting him down and placing him beside the fire while Shula stood beside her.

Fay found the matted hair and the soft flesh below it, he had shattered his skull but it felt as if the damage wouldn't be terrible. She jumped to the wagon and tore open boxes with medicines and anything she would need. She spent the rest of the night boiling water and gently removing bone.

Dawn neared and as she sat the last fragment of bone in boiling water. She had nothing to cover the gap in bone and that concerned her. The brain tissue looked unharmed but she wouldn't know until he awoke. He must have had this since the Woodmon had hit him, that he had been moving at all was unbelievable.

She folded the flaps of skin closed around the wound and put only enough stitches to hold before wrapping his now shaved head in bandages. She flopped to the ground existed and unsure if she could do anymore than this. Shula was still where she had been watching Fay work, her eyes and bulging but not at the blood or damage but at his gauntleted hand.

Fay watched her for a while, wondering what she was thinking. It was clear she knew what the gantlet was but Fay wondered how. Everyone born in the village knew of the gauntlets and those that hadn't been learned eventually and then were told the story behind them. Renamon had learned quickly but her mother never had, strange enough in its self but she had never asked what was meant if someone mentioned something about them in passing.

"Shula where are you from?" Fay asked the question that hadn't been asked since Shula had first arrived in the village. It had been asked many times but an answer never came from her or from Renamon. The two of them didn't mention their past and acted as if they had never lived elsewhere.

Shula finally sat down but her eyes still stayed on the gauntlet covering Brent's hand. "I had lived away to the distant south, across the glass dessert. They're where the kings did not rule humans there but them. The small oasis was a hard place to live but it was the only safety where the kings never sent their troops."

"One day a troop of the royal army arrived suddenly and without warning. The town was destroyed and my husband fought while me and Renamon fled. He was a brave fighter but without his rider he was no match for the knights." Shula finely took her eyes from Brent to look at her daughter who was curled up against Biomon and Wormon. "The kings couldn't stand the thought of a free place and destroyed us without mercy."

Fay looked over at the rookies, watching as Veemon turned over in his sleep and punched the ground with a half clenched fist. She turned back to Shula, "what is a rider? And before, with Heart, you fought with him easily."

Shula looked at Fay and her eyes narrowed for a moment before she gave an impatient sigh. "I rider is a knight. They ride or fight beside digimon, it was something that was started away on another continent shortly after the fall of the Spirit Knights." Her eyes drifted back to Brent but she pulled them away. "My grandmother came across the sea with a few dozen others. They had meant for us to gather information on the kings but they rapidly became intent on avoiding destruction. We were raised as warriors and can fight past our limits."

"Do you have a rider? And how did you track us down?" Fay was growing tired but wanted to stay awake as long as possible.

Shula rested her head on her crossed front legs and stared into the flickering fire. "No I never took the bond of a knight, I was busy being a mother. I fallowed you by sent, humans have a strange sent that clings to everything and fades slowly. Two humans left one way while the hard tire of that mega's bike went another. All the rookies couldn't have road on that bike and Renamon would be more interested in a human than a mega."

Fay had stiffened at her first sentence, wondering if to tell her know or let Brent and Renamon tell her that they held a bond together. Shula looked at Fay again, firelight and the pink light from above turning her fur a raging orange. "Why did you take my daughter and her friends? I know you wouldn't want them around during battles and the harsh life of a wandering rebel but you didn't chase them away."

Fay dropped her head, she hadn't wanted to bring them along but they wouldn't stay behind. "They threatened to tell everyone where we had gone. We didn't need anyone to know that. And there was a problem where they couldn't be left behind."

"What is it? What could let you bring children down this road in their life?" Shula sounded resigned to the matter, as if she had already decided something.

"I can't tell you. It isn't my secret to tell you need to ask Renamon. She might tell you or she might not, it is her chouse. And Shula she is still going to want to fallow us, and she should." Fay watched as Shula stood and went over to her daughter, picking her up carefully in her mouth and pulling her away from the others. Shula curled around her daughter and closed her eyes.

Fay leaned back and looked up at the seraphimoon as it started to sink below the trees and saw everything splashed with golden light as the kerapymoon rose up into sight. She watched it start its short trip across the sky, letting herself relax some now. She would have to get Brent somewhere to have his skull repaired but for the moment she could do nothing so she let her worry slip away as her eyes closed.

Narration ---

Well of course I was all right, I am talking to you right now. Sometimes you don't use that thing on your shoulders very well. Go on and go do whatever you want; I will be here tomorrow to tell you more.

* * *

Another chapter done.

Ok I think I have the names of the moons right but tell me if I'm wrong. I don't think I ever knew witch moon was witch so if you know please tell me.

Finally got around to using some magic, I don't know when technology will appear but it will. An explanation of many things will be coming in the next chapter but feel free to ask questions.

Review, please.

My email is in my bio for anyone to see


	8. C8

I don't own digimon and it is very unlikely that that will change.

Chapter 8. Go on and read.

* * *

-I didn't believe in destiny,-

-------- C8) -------

----Narration----

Hmmm… back are you? It's been a few days, I was starting to think you where in trouble somewhere. No it's fine, after all I didn't wake up for a few days after that dent in my head. But before I tell you about waking I should tell about something else that started, or rather I started remembering, when that dent was put in my head.

--- Brent ---

"Again!" Brent brought up the wooden sword as another like it in every way slammed down towards his head. Pushing it away he drew in closer and struck out with his own, the upward slash blocked as he had blocked the overhead slash.

A gauntleted fist slammed into Brent's face and sent him stumbling back but it wasn't Brent's voice that came from the brushed face. "Good. Use the gauntlets." It was Fate's voice. That other intelligence and tone twisting what Brent's voice into its own.

Brent blinked and froze as he realized he was facing himself. In the moment of surprise Fate, in the copy of Brent's body, struck, the sword sinking into Brent's shoulder. No blood, no damage, a sparkling wound that vanished as the wooden blade was removed but the pain was still there.

"Dang it. What the hell Fate, what is going on?" Brent jumped back and probed at the vanishing slash in his shoulder as he glared at a fuming Fate. Brent was about to start shouting again as he realized what they where standing on, or rather what they weren't. "Where are we?"

Wide-eyed Brent looked around, not understand what exactly he was seeing. Under his feet was a thick golden light, looking like a giant glowing road paved in sunlight, and on ether side was ocean. One side was black waters that sat still and silent with only the occasional suturing current caused by brief flows of light. The other side was a white glaring brilliance that threatened to tear at his eyes except for islands and reefs of blackness that softened the glare.

The road of gold went on in both directions bound Brent's sight and so did the oceans. Fate waved a hand and the wooden swords vanished, "this is where the power resides. It is inside you and inside the armor and me. This is my world, this is where I train those who wear the armor, some knew of it others never consciously did. It seems your conscious might be learning to accept the truth and you will no longer rely entirely on instinct."

Brent curled his fists, blinking as he relished the gauntlets where suddenly gone from his hands. He razed them to his face and saw the many scars he had acquired over his years, scars he was beginning to miss. "Hands up." Brent looked up in time to see an armored fist connect with his cheek, sending him reeling back.

"Be on your guard Brent. Life is a fight and as such it never ends until death." Fate still wore the gauntlets and the jabbed at Brent, first like a boxer powering his way past half broken defense and then becoming the direct open strikes of a martial artist. "I found in your memory several new forms of combat but many are fictional or would be foolish in battle."

Brent's anger flared and he grabbed Fate's arm and brought him into a crushing hug. "Everything works once" Brent fell forward as Fate tried kicking his legs out from under him. Legs tangled and arms immobilized they fell and Fate took the worst of it as he landed with Brent's weight on him. "And the direct approach works best." Brent shifted his weight, pining Fate and freeing his own arms so he could begin raining blows onto his stolen face.

A flare of light and Brent was lying on his back several meters away while Fate got to his feet. "Mayhap in your world anything will work once but this world, like the digital world, has its own differences." Brent lurched to his feet as the burses over his cheats sparkled and vanished. "Magic is one of the digital worlds differences. Your world has little of this and it is often mistaken for simple tricks." A ball of light sprang into existence between Fate's hands; he tossed it back and forth in his palms without actually touching it.

"Is that what that mist stuff was?" Brent didn't like this place, wherever it was, and he liked Fate using his face even less.

Fate tossed the light away, not caring about it as it faded away. "Yes. I'm not sure how you used that spell but you did call a clarity spell. I haven't yet started your training in it so let us begin." Another ball of light appeared in Fate's hands and it became a piercing red as he pulled back his arm and hurled it at Brent.

The ball never came close; the shock of a spell coming at him was like that of falling in a dream and being frightened awake before hitting the ground. Brent sat up with a lurch, smacking his head off something above him.

A throbbing in his head made itself known to him the moment he stopped swearing. It was unpleasant and strangely without any more pain than a mild irritation. Feeling at his skull with softly probing fingers he found, under the bandages, a soft spot and crude stitching and worse than all of that, to him at least, a shaved scalp.

He was muttering curses under his breath and thinking or causing someone some pain as he felt around him for ether his glasses or anything. He found dirt and trampled grass and a blanket he had been covered with but not his glasses. His hand stuck something and he felt it, the fact he could feel texture through the gauntlets still surprising him, and he realized it must be the wagon wheel; he was lying under the wagon.

Carefully, not trusting his balance and being blinded by dark night and no glasses he crawled from under the wagon and used its side to pull him up. He couldn't see anything around him, there wasn't even enough light to show shadows within the darkness. His nose told him he was still in the woods and his bare feet felt the wet ground from a storm that must have just passed.

Something pulled at him from the corner of his mind, like seeing something from the corner of your eye but it was a strange sensation. Turning slowly he peered in the direction this 'sense' told him to look but he could see nothing in the dark and no sound reached his ears.

He sneezed as a heavy sent of flowered perfume reached him, like a field of flowers after it rains or the inside of a greenhouse in full bloom. He sneezed again and again as it felt like the breeze was covering him in pollen. _"MOVE!"_ Brent shoved off the wagon and dived into a roll as something struck where he had been a moment before.

He tried rolling back to his feet but his balance was off because of the concision, he thumped back to the ground as he tried standing. Before he could try again a foot stomped on his chest, a high heel digging into his ribs. "My, my. What a cute looking host Fate. I hope that he is as fun as the last one. It took almost a week to break him. What was his name? Timor? Taker? Tannin, that's what it was."

Brent griped the foot, finding that it was actually an armored boot rather than an actual heeled shoe, and tried pushing it away. The foot and its owner didn't even move, "what's this? The human thinks he can move me when he barely has any of his armor?" the voice, reminding Brent of a spoilt brat or drama quean, gave a snort, "couldn't find one smarter Fate?"

Brent felt Fate reaching for his voice and shoved him back before speaking himself. "Fate's not here. Can I take a message before you die?" something was happening nearby but Brent couldn't tell what only that something was grinding against stone.

The armored heel lifted a fraction, just a fraction, as she was surprised but it was pressed back down again. "A sense of humor, that's something Fate never liked in a host. Now be a good little soul slave and let Fate speak." Something rough and thick started coiling around Brent, it felt as though a giant constrictor was readying to engulf him.

Brent started lashing at the tendril, whatever it was, with his feet as he tried harder to press the heel away. "Who the hell are you to tell me what to do bitch? Another mind dead girl in a nice tin dress?" the tendril stopped for a moment and Brent could feel the glare on the woman's face with how her heel shook with the restrained desire to Pearce his heart.

"You are a cocky bastard if you don't know who I am. Even the most isolated pockets of human resistance know my name. So you have a sense of humor and are ether very stupid or a cheeky brat. I wonder how Fate found you." With a frightful motion the tendril moved faster than a bolt of lightning as it coiled around Brent's legs. "I will have to find out."

Brent was beginning to hyperventilate as the vine coiled around his legs, moving further up his body with every moment. He didn't even hear Fate's voice in his mind as he imaged a living rope tied around him. His hands glowed around the foot in his grip and with a mighty heave with his agitated strength and the power he pulled from the gauntlets the owner of the foot stumbled backwards. But it was too late the tendril caught one of his arms as he tried tearing it from his legs and within moments he was tied from head to toe in the thick coils.

"Strong, powerful and perhaps a little insane… I think Fate finally found a good host." Brent screamed wordlessly as the tendril squeezed him, the thought of being trapped driving everything from his mind except being trapped. "Sleepy time." A strong scent of pollen was driven into Brent's nostrils as a fine-fingered hand covered his mouth. His eyes started to drift closed but not before he could open his mouth wide and drive his teeth down into the soft flesh between fingers and thumb. He didn't hear the screams and curses or even feel the angry fist that pried open his jaws, loosening several teeth in the process.

-------

"Brent! Brent!" Brent didn't feel like opening his eyes like the insistent voice seemed to want. "Brent!" he lifted one heavy eyelid and hazily looked around, finding everything blurred into shapeless colors.

He turned his head and as he did something around his neck rustled and a fresh scent of flowers flooded his nostrils. His eye drifted closed again as the pollen sent him drifting off into sleep again.

"So your Fate's new host." he sneezed as a harsh odder burned his lungs, like a wisp of gas. His eyes snapped open and he jerked his head away from the hand that the smell was coming from. "Good now I can start training you as a new palace slave." The hand came across his face, leaving a read impression from the slap. "I do hope they let me keep you. The last time this happened with the sprit of Courage they made me kill him."

Brent glared at the brown/green blur in front of him and hoped he wasn't facing the wrong direction. "Go ta hell." He worked a wad of saliva up in his mouth a made to spit but another hand struck him, giving him matching welts on both cheeks.

"Oh I'm going to enjoy this so much. Courage's last host didn't even last a week." The voice, witch was driving Brent mad with its snobbish attitude, stopped and the bandage was ripped from his head. "What's this? Been fighting already. I wonder why Fate didn't teach you how to heal that." something bright came next to Brent's head and he felt the dent in his skull squirming and twisting, like it was full of moving slugs.

Brent tried pulling away from the light but found he couldn't move, worse, that he couldn't even feel anything below the neck. A sudden fear of being paralyzed filled him, "what the hell did you do to me? Why can't I move!" the woman's voice didn't answer as the glowing thing continued to move around his head.

He turned his head and snapped at the glowing object, glad that it pulled back. He forgot that as he gained another hand shaped welt across his face. "I'm going to have to de-fang you if you keep snapping." The glowing was gone but the wound continued to squirm and twist itself, sending shivers across his skull.

He focused his thoughts enough to come up with a scathing reply, "really? I thought a girl like you would like some fangs. After all you did tie me up and stand on my chest in heels."

A hand griped his ear and pulled, making him move his head with it or risk losing it, "oh I do like fun bites." Sharp teeth started to scrap over his jaw, only for a moment, before pulling away and making him want to be sick. "But that part comes later after I house break you."

Brent was thankful his stomach was empty, if it weren't it would be as the thought of being her toy revolted him. The hand didn't release his ear as it started turning his head from side to side. "Something is wrong…" there was a slight gasp, "your eyes! Your blind!" the hand was pulled back like he was infected. That was fine with him; he didn't want her touching him.

"So what? My glasses are here somewhere. But it has a plus side, I don't have to see what an ugly whore you are." Brent 'ouffed' as the air was forced out his lungs; he guessed that she had punched him but he couldn't feel it.

The brown/green blur moved away muttering something, Brent was becoming really worried about not feeling anything below his neck so he didn't care much. "Cat." There was a screech and Brent turned his head towards it, not seeing anything. The woman's voice was low but he could hear it, "tell me kitty. Where are his glasses?"

There was a good deal of gagging and choking and then he heard Fay. She sounded frightened, "I, I… I don't know… they where next to me when I was sleeping in the wagon."

Brent could make out a bit of white that might have been Fay but he couldn't tell. "Fay, who is this woman?"

"Brent! Don't sit there! RUN!" there was more but it was cut off and after a moment of straining his ears he could make out her muffled breathing.

"You really don't know who I am do you, _Brent_?" the brown/green blur came back towards him, something glinting from its grip. Brent pulled his head back and shut his eyes as something was moved towards his face. "You must be from far off not to know me."

Brent opened his eyes after realizing his glasses had been put on his face, bent and cracked but still useable. The sight that greeted his eyes made his jaw drop before he could stop it. A shapely woman, curved in all the right places, stood before him in form hugging armor made of tempered stone and woven with plant mater.

Her armor was thin and showed of her form and skin in many places, made of metals made to look like granite and plants. A shaped breastplate showed off a good deal of cleavage and navel while shoulder guards and bracers teamed with thorns and flowers. Her legs where covered with knee-high armored high heels while her tapered waist and upper thighs where covered in a form hugging material that Brent knew was armor of some kind.

What really shocked him was her face, her face was stunning, except of course for the evil smirk and the twinkle of foreign intelligence. Her perfect face was framed with silky brown hair held back with a thin circlet of gray stone woven round with gently moving vines.

There on the circlet above her forehead was a small round disk swirled with brown and green with the crest of Reliability standing out on it. "Shit." Brent knew he was screwed now; standing in front of him was another of the Sprit Knights. An evil one.

"And the slowest horse crosses the finish line." She burst out laughing at him, the sound high and nasal enough to make him think of plastic surgery. While she was laughing, busting a gut apparently, he took a look around.

They where on the edge of the woods, a small road nearby, and the field all around was blooming with flowers and shrubs in a way that couldn't be natural. Fay, and the others, where bound to slabs of stone with thick coils of strange vines. Vincent and Shula and the rookies had wreathes of flowers around their necks and appeared to be asleep but Fay was gagged with a peace of cloth shoved in her mouth.

Brent looked down; expecting to see manacles or vines and was rather amazed to find he was simply sitting on a chair of woven reeds. He wasn't tied down on anything, he was just sitting there but try as he might he couldn't move.

"Surprised?" Brent glared up at her, but she nearly burst into laughter again. "Oh I picked the kitties brain and found out that you don't like being tied up. Its not a problem for me." She lifted her hands and a pair of vines grew from her palms and spun together into a thin thorny collar. The thorns excreted a slightly green substance that dripped to the ground. "Paralysis venom. Works real well for capturing slaves that the rings wont work on."

The venom ran across a small red wound on her hand and she cursed as the collar dropped to the ground from her numb hand. Brent saw that the wound was a small crescent between her fingers and thumb and his teeth ached as he vaguely remembered someone prying between his clamed jaws. The coppery taste of blood returned to him and he almost lost his composure, biting was foul fighting.

A chirping ring, like a spring bird amongst wind chimes, broke Reliability's focus on her hand. She reached into a pouch on her belt and then muttered another curse, as she had to use her other hand because her numb on wouldn't grip. She drew out a small portable phone covered in flowers and gems and flicked it open. "Yeah? Oh hi! I got such awesome news, I caught…" she frowned and turned away but Brent could still hear her side on the conversation.

"But I caught him." she was pouting like the worst brat he could imagine. "I can't leave him go. No way. She really said that? For real? He agreed with her? No joke?" she turned back and Brent wasn't sure what was going on but if it involved him getting away he wouldn't worry too much about the circumstances. "Fine. Ill let him go and come home. But you better make it up to me when I get back."

She shut the phone and slid it back into her belt pouch before returning her attention to him. "I gotta go for now love. Don't worry to much, ill be back for you after you get stronger." She turned and started walking away, not bothering to even look at the collar around his neck of the vines binding everyone else.

"Hey! Get this thing off me!" she kept walking stopping at the edge of the road and looking up and down it.

After a moment she smiled and shortly after that Brent could see a plume of dust rise into the air from something moving fast from the woods. Then and only then did she turn back to him, "don't worry. Somebody is coming they should help you. Or rob you blind. Later love."

With that she stepped onto the road and started walking away from the woods. Brent followed her with a glare and considering so many curses when he realized he was looking out over a vast hilly area barren of anything but grass and the occasional tree and rocky outcropping. In this moment of surprise she had vanished and he could no longer find her with his eyes no matter how he craned his head.

After a moment Brent looked out over the hills again, such wide space without trees or buildings. It was so strange to him that it finally made him realizes that this wasn't his world. He had known it and saw so many things that weren't possible on earth but it was this wide-open view with only a dusty road and no other sign of people to make him think what it meant. He couldn't go down the block and talk to his friends, or step over to the story for a pack of gum. And worst of all was that his family was far from him, his mother most likely worrying over his disappearance.

How long had he been in this world yet? A week? A month? He spent most of his time unconscious, as he didn't really know. The roar of a vehicle was heard now coming from the forest but he was lost in his thoughts and didn't even hear it screech to a stop. A pair of hands shaking his shoulders forced him back to the moment and he found that Alex was there looking at him worriedly.

Alex was looking good, the few days on the road letting his wings heal and bringing a bit of color to his light skin. He was free of the dust of the road as only an angle could be after such a fast long trip but his face from under his still cracked helm was of concern. "Brent? Are you ok?"

"Remove the collar." Alex looked at the thorny weed and griped it carefully and unwound it from Brent's neck. He was careful not to cut himself or make any of the small piercing wounds on Brent's neck worse. He dropped the thing with distaste and shook the slimy venom from his hands. "Untie the others Alex. I'll be fine after that stuff wears off."

"Are you sure your ok? You sound like you're in shock? What happened here?" Brent just shook off the questions and turned his head back around to look out over the many hills that faded into the distance. Alex didn't know what could be done so he turned to help Violet and Beelzamon untie everyone.

--- Fay ---

She watched Brent as he looked out over the hills, his face distant and with a slight slackening she hadn't seen on him before. The moment Alex tore the vines apart she pulled the gag from her mouth and moved towards Brent. All her limbs where tingling as circulation returned and she brushed that sickly sleep dust from around her neck.

She couldn't believe she had seen Reliability and lived. The assassin knight was feared worse than anything alive, granted most thought she was some digimon under the armor but know Fay knew better. The crest of reliability combined with an assassin, the thought alone made her shiver.

She stopped beside the living wicker chair and watched, as Brent seemed lost in his thoughts. "Brent?" she carefully jumped onto his lap but he didn't seem to notice, the venom still paralyzing him. It didn't seem right that he would go berserk over ropes or shackles but be fine with his own body betraying him.

"Its so open. So free." Fay blinked at his words and looked out where he was facing. The vast hills covered in tall waving grasses and marred only buy the thin dirt road that wove between them into the distance. "I'm really not on earth anymore."

"Don't you have hills on earth?" she didn't know how to deal with this, after all she never meet anyone from another world before this.

Brent eye pulled in everything, seeing it like it was something he always wanted to see. "Yeah there are hills. But they are tamed." A scowl came on his face as he thought of home compared to this sight before him. "Back home this would be ruined by old scars in the ground or fallen trees. Power lines would go everywhere and houses would be dotted along here as if only they where the best view in the area."

Before her very eyes she could see what he was saying as though his words brought it to terrible realty. Hills gutted for stone or cleaved in two so that a road of blackened tar and stone shot into the distance. Homes and small buildings, each gaudy and expensive but tasteless, jumped into being and clamored for space. Each one brought with it manicured lawns and fences and short walks and driveways of cement. Lines ran every which way before vanishing to every point of the compass.

She blinked away the sight and looked at Brent, "how can they live like that. How can they harm the land and not notice?"

Brent shook his head and looked back over the hills to watch something he wouldn't find on earth. "They see it. But not enough care about it to stop it. The few places that are called 'untouched' are still affected. Weather changes, smog, pollutants, trash, foreign plants and animals. Nothing is left the way it was after man comes by."

Fay found herself disliking his world, and apparently so did he. "Why would you want to go back then?"

Brent looked at her for a moment and then shook his head and that slackness in his face left, bringing back a tension she remembered. "It's the only place I understand. I don't have to like it, just live in it."

"How can you not like your world and still want to go back?" Fay waited and waited for his answer but didn't look like it was coming.

Then Brent turned his head away from the view and studied her. "I haven't been convinced this one is much better. Every time I wake up I get beat to hell and back and then wake up half starved and fearing what will happen next. Can you tell me a reason to want to stay? Back home I don't have to fear anything except what my future is going to be. Here I have to worry about not just my life but also an entire world. I don't like responsibilities."

Fay stepped back as for a moment Brent got that hard look she saw in his eyes when Fate took control, however this was still Brent. Fay's step distracted him and made him blink, "Fay? Why are you on my lap?"

Fay actually turned pink under her fur as she hurried to move off his lap. Laughter followed her as she went off looking for the wagon, and trying to hide. She hadn't thought Brent so crude as to make fun of her for that, she should have stood on his shoulder.

---- Narration ----

Why yes I made that joke. I couldn't keep acting tough to cover my fear so I resorted to humor. What? It wasn't that crude.

* * *

Another chapter. Not that great but I had to force myself to work on it. Summer is a pain in my rear. 


	9. C9

The first update, of any of my stories, in a long while. Sorry for the delay but for not having a life time is elusive.

Shula is Renamon's mother, a Kyubimon, I had her named Jean when she was first introduced but changed it as Jean wasn't a fitting name… maybe I will take out the names, maybe.

I am amazed. Somehow Violet got her own perspective this chapter. Looks like I get to introduce her personality from her angle. Not sure if, or when, she will get another turn at perspective, I would like to keep it down to just Fay and Brent but my fingers never write exactly what I think. Chances are that other POV's will start appearing, not sure who or when but they will only be rare occasions as the story will still cycle around Fay and Brent's POV.

KEY (figured it might be needed)

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"_Talking in head" "talking to Fate (or other Sprit)"_

**Sound effects **(FFnet has been messing these up. I will try to fix)

(Authors comments or notes of interest) Same Same

Too much talking on my part… on with the fic.

* * *

-I didn't believe in destiny,-

-------- C9) -------

----Narration----

What are you still doing here? Its late and you have things to do tomorrow… fine ill tell you some more of my story, but you had better not fall behind in your tasks. The day after the encounter with Reliability wasn't easy for many reasons but it didn't end with me beaten… not too severely at least.

--- Brent ---

"NO!" Brent stayed by the fire, small as it was, while listening to the argument between Fay and Beezlemon. "You are not using my ride to pull that peace of tinder. No, no, NO!"

Despite being shorter than the mega's knee Fay was whom Brent was betting on. She tended to get what needed done despite protests, like how she had been having Vincent and Shula pulling the wagon with the mules gone. "Honestly Beezlemon we wont be able to go fast as your motorbike even if we had a good team to pull the wagon. It isn't going to hurt your bike one bit to pull it until we find another team."

With that Fay turned her back on the mega and walked away, leaving his muttered protests without acknowledgment. Brent hid his grin and looked around the meager camp. They hadn't made it far after everyone had recovered from the effects of Reliability's sleep pollen had worn off, barely four miles from the road.

Brent stood and stretched, his back popping from a poor nights sleep on rocky ground. He shook his head at Alex's insistence that they stay off the roads to avoid whoever Reliability sent after them. It would have made sense if not for the fact that they would end up moving slower and there where few places to go in this direction. It would have been better to stay on the road and press on as fast as possible before a search was started for them. At least then they could have hit a town and moved off again in another direction.

Not to mention they would need supplies soon, very soon. As it was they where going to spend the better part of every night foraging to supplement what they already had. That was where everyone else was, Brent had been ready to go to but Fay kept him here she was certain he was all right. He was, despite many bruises and minor aches, and a few good meals would certainly be appreciated.

Brent flexed his arm for a moment as he went into the tree line of the forest they where traveling along, he shook his head at his upper arm. It was thinner than ever, as was the rest of him from not eating properly, but over the bone was more muscle than he would have thought he had, especially not after all the beating he had been taking and lack of exercise.

_"I have been exerting some influence to keep your muscle mass intact. Your useless if you cant fight."_ Fate's voice was as haughty as ever, Brent wondered if snotty was a trait of all the Sprit Knights.

Brent kept moving, turning so that he was walking just inside the tree line without going further into the forest. "Where were you during Reliability's visit?"

Fate stirred in Brent's skull, feeling as if shifting in unease, _"I couldn't come forward with her so close. Her life force is far stronger than mine at the moment. When she is around, or any of the other Sprit Knights, I wont be strong enough to touch your consciousness. That is why you must train, train and find the rest of the armor."_

Brent saw a broken branch barely hanging from a tree, not a large branch but enough to catch his attention. Stretching his arms up he caught it and ripped it free, hefting the short round peace of wood for a moment before settling down under the tree and pulling out his pocket knife.

Fate was still in his head, annoying Brent more than usual, as he obviously wanted to speak about training and the armor. "I don't care Fate." Testing the knife's edge he started trimming away the bark and revealing the wood underneath.

_"You must care. To do nothing would mean that this régime of corruption could continue. The Three have held sway for far too long and must be removed before the world becomes unstable. If they are not removed and a more stable power installed the world could dissolve into open revolt against them and either be ruthlessly squashed or succeed only to break into squabbling nationalities."_ Brent snuffed the faint flicker of emotion that came from Fate's inspiring speech. He knew enough about world politics to know that what Fate wanted wouldn't work, or not for long at any rate.

Knife moving calmly he let his mind unfocused, Fate's words spinning uselessly around his skull without sinking in. Brent didn't notice Fate leaving or the sun moving across the sky, he just let the feel of the forest enter him. Mind free and body relaxed, his hands moved as if by another's biding. This is what he enjoyed at home, finding solitude out in the nowhere and letting everything go.

A voice calling his name in the distance started to bring him back to himself. As he was gathering his mind from its rest in oblivion he closed the pocketknife and put it away. As he begin to stand he let the peace of wood fall from his fingers without seeing it, he never looked, never thought to. After all he only carved so he would have an anchor back to reality and had never thought the figures he did look at good enough to keep. Falling into the pile of wood shavings a small carving of a rabbit landed with a puff of sawdust, its ears back and nose looking as if ready to twitch.

Brent blinked as he realized the sun was much farther across the sky than he had meant to be gone. With a sigh he dusted his pants off and set out with a calm plodding stride back to where the shouts where coming from. He didn't see Renamon hiding behind another tree a few paces away, nor did he see her sneak over to where he had been and retrieve the carved rabbit.

--- Fay ---

Fay ignored Beezlemon wince as she pulled the last strap tight, drawing the wagon tongs tight against the back of his motorcycle. She checked the knots and turned to the battered remains of the wagon. The wagon was really falling to peaces after having been through so much in such a short time but it was all that they had at the moment.

She watched as a shattered sideboard dropped free because of the wagons movement. It had been split by Reliability's attack, what attack or why she had lashed out at the wagon Fay didn't know. After all it had been that attack that had woke her, she shivered as she recalled being jolted awake buy a peace of wood exploding next to her head.

She looked around the camp again to see if anything still needed clearing up before they tried setting off again. Alex was having a conversation with Shula and Vincent was against a tree and looking asleep. She only saw Biomon and Wormmon, she was taking of his bandages, and hoped the others wouldn't be to far away.

Violet was supposed to be keeping an eye on everyone, expressly Veemon and Palamon because they where the troublemakers, but Fay didn't see her. She sighed and got down from the back of the bike, tossing the reins to Beezlemon where he sat at the front of the wagon. He tested each length of cord to see if it would work the controls, he insisted that only he could drive his bike and as far as Fay knew no one in the group knew how.

Her ears twitched as she heard Violet calling Brent from the forest. Fay gave her head a shake and tried forgetting about Brent, it was far too confusing a topic to think about. He was nothing but a contradiction in every sense she could think of.

He liked to fight but didn't want to kill anyone, or even injure someone who he didn't think deserved it. he was intelligent but could act very, very incompetent at times, he didn't even know how to find a power socket in the woods. He was trapped in a diffract world than his own and accepted that he was but kept insisting on going back, back to a planet he really disliked even after saying that the digital world sounded better. Then there was the incredibly strange fact that at times his sense of humor, only recently being shown, was exceedingly crude but he seemed revolted at some of the things Reliability had said to him.

She shook those thoughts away and started kicking dust over the fire, snuffing it out. She looked up as she heard the slight buzzing hum of Violet's wings as she came darting from the forest, a struggling rookie under each arm that was promptly dropped on Vincent. He jolted awake as stared at Veemon and Palmon where they where rubbing their bottoms, Fay doubted that the fall was what had made them sting. Violet could be very harsh with children that misbehaved, Fay only wondered what the two had done.

Violet didn't leave Fay long to wonder as she flew over and landed, her dainty boots touching the ground softly as if she barely weighed anything. "I found those two trying to pick fire fruit, fire fruit from an old tree." Fay winced at the thought of what that semi-living tree could do to anyone trying to take its sweet berry-like fruit. "I don't know where Renamon went off too but she could be anywhere faster than I could hope to find so we will just have to wait, Brent is off along the tree line. I saw him sitting under a tree while bringing the terrible two back, I shouted for him but I'm not sure he heard me. So what now boss lady? Want me to go get him?"

Fay scowled, not about Brent or Renamon, those two where smart enough to avoid trouble most times, but because somehow she had ended up in charge of this rather strange trip. Alex or Beezlemon could probably do better but Beezlemon did whatever he felt like, and not much else, and Alex was too busy searching through his books, that took up most the wagon, or trying to teach an inattentive Brent about the digital world. Fay didn't like being in charge.

"yeah you better go bring him in. we are going to be going soon and this trip is rather pointless without him." Fay shook her head again as Violet snapped a fist to her chest in a semi-mocking salute and walked off towards the woods again, the flower sprite was treating this far too much like a game.

She started towards Alex and Shula where they where discussing something, possibly about the book Alex was holding in his hand. "… the texts say the armor of the Sprit Knights was a freely bond energy that shares many similarities to the natural fractal code of digimon. This is theorized to be how the armors could gain any form of life and intelligence while all other forms of armors had little if any of either." Alex opened the book to another page and thumped it with a finger. "That man, Hard Heart, he should not have been capable of altering that tree unless his armor had been made in a way that was similar to the Sprit armors."

Shula looked relaxed and at ease, a deceptive appearance to anyone who knew even the slightest about her past, lying down with her front legs crossed and her head held up so she could she the page Alex was showing her. "I don't can't recall any human knight I knew ever doing anything like this but all their armors where ancient. Family heirlooms and if it wasn't it was more like a crude electrical suit than armor. But with how long since your books where printed it could be that the Three have had new armors made. Stronger more powerful armors."

Fay shivered at the thought of more Sprit Knight's being made that where made too follow what the Three Kings wanted done without question. "Imposable!" Alex snapped his book shut violently, usually he was very careful with books. "The Sprit armors where the last armors Ever made. The power it required to create them destroyed anything near the mystical forges, that included all the master crafters and several other sets of armor that where going to be Sprit Armors. Without the master crafters or any idea of how exactly they had done what they had done the lesser crafters and apprenticed armor forgers couldn't even make armors above champion strength."

Fay almost sighed in relief that there wouldn't be any new Knights to fight. "And why prey tell cant they have gotten better and rediscovered how it was done? Or even find another way of making stronger armors? After all the first humans to come to the digital world where only capable of making the simplest armors that didn't even recover from damage or boost their powers. There may not be other armors out there that could cause Fate, Brent, trouble but it would be best to act as if there may be." Fay cleared her suddenly dry throat, making Alex jolt upright as he realized she was beside him, Shula didn't show any reaction having seen Fay a while ago.

"Alex, Shula. Could you two keep that little bit of knowledge to yourselves for now, at least until Brent is used to everything." Alex blinked behind his helmet, confusion evident in the showing eye she could see before realization struck and he nodded. Shula just shrugged stood up slowly, towering over Fay in a very intimidating fashion as she stretched out her muscles. "Ok, well you two should get ready. We will be going as soon a Brent and Renamon come in."

Shula frowned at Fay, she still didn't know why her daughter was following Brent and resented that Fay knew and wouldn't say. At that moment Renamon came skipping out of the woods, something clutched in her three fingered hands, and went to the wagon where she disappeared in under the half ragged covering that had been stretched back over the twisted roof hoops. Shula frowned at Fay one more time and went to the wagon herself. As she was walking away she heard Shula propose the idea that what Hard Heart had done was in inherent effect of his armor, using the nature of his armor in the tree to grow/ forge armor. Fay didn't know but was sad that he had taken his life when he could have done so much in it still.

Fay was getting a rather nasty headache from… well everything. Vincent walked past, lecturing Palmon and Veemon about why they shouldn't go near fruit trees that could easily beat them. Veemon countered with the fact that his father had just done it a few days ago against Cherrymon. Fay shook her head again and looked around, everyone was back except Brent and Violet. She gave yet another disgruntled sigh, hoping that Brent wasn't doing anything stupid or that Violet could get him out of it.

--- Brent ---

Brent was no longer going towards the camp. Along the way Fate had come back into his mind and started lecturing about Brent's duty to save the world in a tone of voice that Brent thought only Alex was capable. In an attempt to shut up the sprit he had turned deeper into the forest and started humming whatever tune popped into his head, it came out differently than it was supposed to but he never could carry a tune.

He idly wished he could remember how to shove Fate out of his head but other than knowing it could be done and that he had done it once without thought he hadn't been able to again. Fate was still there, feeling like a head a little too full or dry sinuses, but he wasn't trying to talk. Brent kept hiking along, turning gradually until he wasn't doing anything except walking around a large area over and over again. The woods here where thickly leaved and let scant light through that made for very little undergrowth. The ground was covered in either small fuzzy moss or ageing leaf compost that was only disturbed by the odd insect or scurrying animal that he couldn't quite see as they fled from him.

After a while fate vanished from his head, he didn't know where or care, and he stopped humming and dropped to the bare dust under a tall whip thin tree that trailed long willow like braches heavy with orange and red fruit shaped like small pineapples and gave off a slightly spicy scent.

He let his eyes drift shut and leaned back against the slender trunk, felling the many hanging braches caress his face and body. It was very peaceful, the still air carrying him the sounds of hidden wildlife and the light call of some songbird as the tree limbs rubbed the tension from his body. "It is so hard for me to relax anymore… but I suppose I'm dealing with stuff better than some would."

He was only thinking out loud, mainly because thinking in his head would likely draw Fate's attention, and never expected an answer. "Why? What has been happening to you?" the voice was soft and slightly whispery, definitely feminine and seamed to be spoken just off the edge of hearing without being hard to hear. "Relax. Tell me about everything." The voice was stronger, a low murmur rather than a whisper, and strongly made the tension, brought back by a strange voice, fade again.

So Brent begin his tale, starting at his computer and proceeding on, telling everything to the strange voice that he had yet to identify. The voice was very polite but dug at him for all the details he could recall. All the while Brent was drifting along somewhere between aware and slumber, the soothing voice and swaying braches lulling him while the questions kept his mind working and awake.

--- Violet ---

Violet was starting to think this 'adventure' wasn't as much fun as the stories she usually read to the children she taught. Traveling was much harder, and longer, than the stories made out, dust all over her purple flower shaped dress and her shoulders tense from flying so much and so fast. In the stories the hero, or heroine, never got hurt, nor did the sidekicks. Her side still hurt where a burning arrow had scored a deep hit.

And worst of all there where no big strong hero's, well there was Brent but he was shorter than her by almost a foot and defiantly not her type not to mention he had that brooding ego trip thing going. "There is Beezlemon." She giggled, a very childish sound despite her age, as she thought of the tall pale demon. "Not exactly my type but I do like older men." She thought for a moment longer of the gun slinging biker, a blush creeping across her face before she shook the thought away with another giggle.

She was walking along into the forest, too many low hanging branches to fly safely, looking for Brent. He hadn't been at the tree she had seen him at before but the firm footprints in the soil and leaves under the trees wasn't too hard for her to follow. It may have been a long time since she was a Palmon and played with her friends in the orchards but she remembered some things about how to follow someone.

She idly wondered why he was going into the woods anyhow, it wasn't as if he was expected to gather food, she doubted he knew what fruit was what or what flowers and roots where good and what was bad. She pulled a peace of her thick light green, very light green, vine like hair from her face and tucked it back under her bud shaped helmet. "Where did that boy go?" Brent wasn't exactly young enough to be called a boy but he was much younger than her, or even Fay.

Violet shook her head as she brought up that odd question, why was Fay still a champion. Sure she was a few years younger than Violet, only two decades, but she should be old enough to have evolved by now after all Violet had been an ultimate for almost thirty years now. The only vague answer she could think of in answer, she couldn't ask Fay because it wasn't a polite thing to ask, was that maybe she needed more time and energy because she would be, almost certainly, an angelic digimon of some kind.

She heard something and focused on what she was doing once more, following Brent's trail until she saw the fire fruit tree that she had dragged Veemon and Palmon away from earlier. The tall exceedingly thin trunk with its many slender branches that should be dragged to the earth under the weight of so many orange and pink fruit. Brent was leaning against the trunk being caressed by some of the branches as he spoke softly and calmly under his breath.

Violet simply stood there and stared at what couldn't be. The fire fruit tree was a living tree, in the fact that it was able to move its limbs like tentacles and was harshly territorial and protective of its fruits. Then there were all those countless rumors of the trees being able to communicate but nobody but rookies believed those. Fire fruit trees would whip at anyone who came near it after its fruit or, unreasonably, throw said fruit at the attacker/ food gatherer. Fire fruit, when picked, was a spicy warm meated fruit that was surprisingly dry but very tasty and incredibly filling.

When hurled from the tree however the same peace of fruit would explode violently into a burning red paste that could eat through most organic substances. How Brent had gotten to the trunk unharmed and fell asleep unharmed was more than alarming. Violet didn't know what to do, he seemed to be half asleep and talking to himself, or more likely, and disturbing to Violet no mater the truth, talking with Fate.

Chances are if she tried getting to him the tree would attack, and she really didn't want to ruin her dress if possible. "Brent? Brent." calling his name made him stir a little, only for him to roll his head down against his shoulder.

The tree however seemed very upset over this interruption, its outer limbs started coiling around the fruits hanging at their ends and those that had none struck at the ground, slashing the grass and soil and tossing the forest floor up all around the tree. Violet took as step back, this tree didn't want bothered and was apparently more than willing to toss a good deal of fruit at her.

The thrashing had waked Brent fully and he was sitting up strait, watching her through the shifting curtain of limbs. She didn't know what to do, didn't know what she could do. She could blast the tree apart with her flower cannon but it would still live long enough to pelt everything nearby with fruit and while Violet knew from painful experience that she would survive she didn't think a humans skin was as resilient as an ultimate.

Her yes widened as Brent stood up and took a step towards her, stopping as a branch caught his arm and spun itself around his bicep. Brent turned back to the tree and laid a hand against it trunk, speaking something to it that she couldn't hear.

After a moment he turned away from the trunk and started walking out from under its branches. That one branch slowly unraveled from his arm as he drew further away, all the other limbs parting before his path except for those that reached down to brush his smiling face.

Smiling? Violet gave a jolt as she realized that he was smiling, not a forced grin or a week flash of teeth but a full-blown smile. She had never seen him looking so happy, well maybe not happy but at least relaxed and feeling good.

Brent stopped before her, the last of the tree's trailing limbs slipping from his shoulders. "Your face could get stuck like that."

Violet gave a jump and shut her mouth and tried to make her eyes not look as big. For a long moment she could only stare at him, trying to understand what she had witnessed. Remembering what Fay had sent her to do she opened her mouth to chew Brent out for going so far from the camp when the fire fruit tree stirred behind Brent.

She yelped and dove backwards as several long braches stretched out, their ends coiled around some of the largest ripest peaces of fruit she had seen. Brent turned around, ignoring her whispered command to move, and reached out to brush his gauntleted hands across the limbs. Each limb quivered as his hand passed over it and then gently lowered the fruit to the ground before his feet.

Violet was stunned still as she watched. This wasn't possible. Fire fruit trees never let anyone near them, attacked everything that came to close, and would NEVER let even the smallest peace of its fruit go without a fight. And here one was giving Brent more than a dozen of its best freely.

"Thank you... Bloom." Violet couldn't believe this. The fire fruit tree quivered and Violet could almost make out something on the edge of her hearing. Brent shook his head, a moment of sadness twitching at his smile before vanishing. "No I'm not sure I will ever be back in this part of the forest. But if I ever am I promise to come back and tell you everything I can. Goodbye Bloom." Brent gathered up the fire fruit slowly and then turned away from the still quivering tree and started to walk past Violet.

He paused and glanced back at her where she was sprawled on her behind watching him with a face of blank shock. "Are you coming?" Violet scrambled to her feet and hurried after him. She knew she was looking the fool but she couldn't stop her eyes from popping and her jaw working as she tried asking him any of the questions buzzing around her head and only getting out single syllables as another question crowded after the first.

Brent threw back his head and laughed, and all she could do was laugh too as the rich sound made her forget, for now, what she had witnessed. They walked back to the camp laughing over nothing, stopping long enough for her to take some of the fire fruit to carry. She managed a clear thought at some point and it stuck in her mind even as she laughed with Brent. 'The stories didn't have anything like this either. It is so strange being around a hero that doesn't act like one. And I cant ever recall a story that had a hero laugh just to laugh.'

--- Fay ---

Fay was standing on the drivers seat beside Beezlemon, feet braced wide, arms crossed tail lashing and with her ears occasionally it was obvious to everyone that she was worse than mad. The rookies where sitting silently in back, all those slumped shoulders and wary looks making it look like a prison bus full of wrongly accused. Alex was in the very back of the wagon as well, sitting with his back to the rest of the wagon and bowed over another book, only his tense wings gave away that he was troubled by the glare that Fay was slowly moving over everyone.

Fay knew she should calm down, shouldn't take of her frustration on the others, but couldn't help but grow even angrier by the lack of Brent and Violet. She turned her glare on those outside the wagon, Vincent had the decency to flinch from her burning glare but Shula simply returned it. This made Fay's ears twitch harder as she turned her violent purple gaze on Beezlemon, who showed even less reaction than Shula because he had drifted off to sleep somehow.

With a growl she brought back her paw, her claws curled into a fist that shook with anger. Before she could even start her swing Beezlemon's third eye opened and swung to her. She growled again and lowered her still trembling fist, she was only a champion and it wouldn't do any good trying to pick a fight with a mega, no matter old and out of shape he was.

Her ears swiveled towards the sound of laughter, her head following slowly. The sound of laughter brought her temper to a boiling head even before the real source of her anger came from the trees. Violet was laughing with Brent as they made their way to the wagon while carrying something.

Fay had sent Violet into the woods to find Brent hours ago and they had to nerve to come back laughing. She didn't move yet but her tail lashed all the harder for her inaction. Violet seemed to sense her impending doom and fell silent she her eyes found Fay, her smile becoming thin and forced. Brent kept on walking and laughing, not noticing that the tall plant girl beside him had fallen silent.

"Having fun are you?" Fay's voice was a very deep hiss that cut Brent's laughter to peaces and made Violet pale. "I do so hope you both had a lovely time walking and chatting while the rest of us where worried about leaving here before any of the Royal Army came to kill us." Her voice rang with anger and scorn; strangely enough Brent was still smiling even if it was more a smirk now.

Brent turned and dumped his armload on top of Violet's, who gladly took the excuse to run to the back of the wagon, before turning to face Fay with a cocky grin and feet wide with his arms crossed over his chest. Fay growled as she realized he was mocking her stance.

"Fay..." her head whipped around and she glared at Beezlemon until he shut his mouth. She turned back to Brent, contemplating what to do with, or rather to, him.

Brent was still grinning at her, waiting for something and when he realized she wasn't going to do anything his smile slipped into a frown. He shook his head and turned back along the way they had come from the other day, they hadn't gotten far and only hills hid them from the road.

Fay saw him heading back to the road and had to take a sharp hold on her temper to stop from going over there and drag him back. "Brent where are you going? We have to get going if we want to put distance between us and whoever Reliability sends after us." He kept walking as he was, shaking his head about something.

She snapped and leapt after him, bounding across the ground and pouncing on him with a startlingly loud roar. She rolled him over and drew back her fist, **thwack** again **thwack** and again **thwack**. Before she could land another hit to his face she found herself laying a few feet away with a large knot of pain forming along her jaw.

Spiting blood from her torn lip she hopped back to her feet and growled as Brent got to his knees, rubbing his already bruising face. With another of those roars that didn't seem possible from her small form she launched herself at him again, claws ready to rip him open.

Brent had looked very surprised when she had first pounced on him but now that smile was back as he blocked the first swipe of her claws with his gauntlets. The clear white crystal ringing like a chime with every blocked swing, the black iron rippling with moment around his flexing and shifting hands.

Fay growled and struck harder, faster, trying to draw blood, trying to make him stop smiling. She leapt into the air, drawing her small body up before balling up her paw and swinging it down. Her body turned and followed her fist as she barreled towards Brent, "lightning paw" her shout was interrupted by a load ear crashing bell toll as Brent caught her fist.

For a brief moment the iron of the gauntlets turned blacker than midnight and shifted like hot tar while the crystal plates glowed, his skin fading from view under the thick clear substance to let everyone see right trough his hands as if there was nothing there but the black lines of metal and air clearer than anything imaginable.

Fay forgot to be angry as Brent laughed and spun her around once before flinging her up into the air as hard as he could. Fay felt her stomach seize as she flipped end over end, spinning trough the sky with everything blurring around her. Blue and white replaced for a few seconds by green earth and brown woods before becoming blue again.

She shrieked as her upward flight slowed, her tumbling and turning still making her eyes spin, before gravity remembered where she was supposed to be and started pulling her down. Fay clamped her teeth shut as her twisted stomach tried rejecting her last meal. Her downward tumble was halted by a surprisingly gentle pair of hands that caught her around the waist and spun her around before settling her on the ground.

She managed three wobbling steps, none in the same direction, before she went to her knees and released her lunch. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see half digested fruit and vegetables and heaved until it felt as if her organs where going to follow her lunch. A hand rubbed her back, stroking down her rumpled fur and soothing her while her stomach cramps eased.

Finally she wiped her hand across her mouth and looked up at whoever was beside her. It was Brent and he had the widest cocky grin on his face, she was considering attacking him again when she noticed that his hand petting her back wasn't wearing a gauntlet and neither was the one resting on the ground as he bent over her.

"Thanks Fay. I finally figured out how to take those things off. You should try ripping my face off more often." Fay nodded and mumbled something ineligible before closing her eyes and trying fighting off another bout of nausea. "I still got this stupid crest though. I doubt I'm lucky enough to get rid of Fate as long as I have that."

Fay tensed as Brent put his hands under her armpits and lifted her but let him carry her back to the wagon. Her eyes flickered open to find that no one had moved a muscle during her outburst but now the rookies were snickering to each other while Shula was grinning in a very pleased fashion having seen Fay toss her lunch.

Fay groaned and let Brent put her in the wagon where she promptly curled into an embarrassed ball under the blanket Alex handed her. As she was drifting off she heard Brent telling Beezlemon to turn the, as he put, kindling they called a wagon, back towards the road. She curled tighter under her blanket, too tired all of a sudden to care weather anybody found them on the road. Brent struck up a conversation with Beezlemon and Alex, the three of them crammed together on the driver's bench with Shula walking along side adding in a word here and there. She drifted off to their voices as Brent outlined what they where going to do at the next town along the road. 'It make sense when he says it like that.' she drew her tail under the blanket with her and wrapped it around herself, 'I should let Brent deal with all them from now on. They at least listen to him.'

----Narration----

You had best be going off home, it very late now and you can barely keep your eyes open as it is. Go on now, I still be here to tell you the story tomorrow. Get on with you or your protector wont be happy with me. Or at least less restrained in showing his dislike.

* * *

This chapter fell into place pretty well, but I also chewed it over in my head for a few months before I wrote any of it down. Again I had no intention of giving Violet, or anybody, a POV but now I have and it will likely happen again.

Review now and I will likely work faster, enough reviews and I might start another chapter right away instead of spending another few months working on other fics and stories.

Later


End file.
